“Big Girls Don’t Cry”
In this 2006 Fergie song, she sings, “I’m gonna miss you like a child misses their blanket.”
It’s a short lyric that has some big grammar issues. “Back when the song came out, that line always hit my ear as wrong—very strictly, it should be ‘his or her blanket,’ because ‘child’ is singular and gender-neutral, and ‘they’ is plural,” says Chassé.
However, she explains that Fergie’s use of “they” goes back centuries, and this usage has become more acceptable in our days, in consideration of nonbinary people. “Plus, who expects Fergie to shoehorn those extra beats into her lyric?” Chassé asks.
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