this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2023
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Plural - for those who are never alone

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About this community

This is a community for those who are never alone. Whether you have DID, OSDD, tulpas, soulbonds, are part of the plurality umbrella, or know that you are never alone, you are more than welcome here! We also encourage those who are curious about plurality and want to learn more about it, as well as those who are still questioning.

What is plural?

TLDR for community rules

  1. Follow lemm.ee general rules: no abusive language, no bigotry, no advertising, no pornography.
  2. All plural identities are valid; do not dispute the validity of anyone.
  3. Don't pressure questioning people; let people decide whether they're plural or not.
  4. We are not therapist or professionals; this community is not a substitute for professional help.
  5. Be mindful of what you post here; put trigger warning in the post title for negative and/or triggering contents.
  6. All rules apply regardless of who is using an account; as with real life, you are responsible for what your other selves may do.
  7. Do not insist anyone to stop using a term they prefer to refer to themselves.

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This post is mostly intented for plural systems, but I'm open to anyone responding as well, even if you aren't plural. It's nice to hear from another perspective outside our community.

When you have more than one selves within the same body, it's fair to say that the pronoun "I" may not be enough sometimes. After all, if you share your body with more than one selves, some of the things your body does would technically be done by all of your selves.

For example, as a plural system myself, whenever I go anywhere, technically all my headmates (or another selves) will also go with me since we share the same body. If the body goes somewhere, everyone goes along with it. With that, some stuff about us can't be described with just "I." Think of how I've been using "we," "us," and "our" throughout this post.

So, if you're plural yourself, do you also use plural pronouns the same way we do? When do you use "we" to describe yourself? And when do you use "I" to describe yourself?

For me at least, I usually use singular pronouns for stuff like opinions, since every one of us have differing opinions (even if we share the same body!). For example, I am writing most of this text alone, so I use singular first person.

But, for stuff all of us agree on, stuff written by more than one headmates, or stuff involving multiple headmates, I often use plural pronouns like "we" since it involves more than one of us. I also use we for the more formal stuff. In a way, it's kind of like using royal/formal we.

Honestly, being more than one in the same body presents a lot of weird and interesting quirks, and this is just one of them.

And, if you're not plural or don't understand what's going on here (that's understandable), how often do you use royal/formal we to describe yourself? If you're the sole moderator of a community on lemmy or someplace else, do you use "we" for moderator announcements to sound more formal?

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[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Interesting. So you never use 'I', even when talking to someone who may not be familiar with plurality? Have that ever caused a problem to you?

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Cat: Not really. Most folk seem to automatically censor it out with their weirdness filter.