History Main / ItIsDehumanizing

'''Cotterpin:''' Because you just ran into me, that's why! And I am not an "it". I'm Cotterpin.\\

* Pretty much averted with infants in general. People don't specifically intend to call newborns "it", but new parents can expect to be bombarded with questions like "is it a boy or a girl?", "is it healthy?" or "how much does it weigh?" It's also common to refer to unborn children as "it", especially if the parents choose not to find out the gender until the baby's born.

* ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' uses this with many characters when they talk about [[ArtificialHuman synths]], but one particular instance stands out, that being during the Blind Betrayal quest: [[spoiler:Danse is revealed to be an escaped synth who had his memory wiped, and Elder Maxson tasks you with tracking him down and executing him. Danse had absolutely idea he was a synth and has served the Brotherhood of Steel for years with unquestioning loyalty, but if you convince Danse that he [[TalkingDownTheSuicidal deserves to live despite being a synth]] and then stand up to Maxson in his defense, Maxson disregards the fact that Danse is the best soldier he has and only refers to him as "it". Danse is visibly hurt.]]

** ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk:'' Emil Blonsky initially refers to the Hulk as an "it", mainly because he has no idea ''what'' the Hulk is to begin with, until General Ross sets him straight. By contrast, in ''Film/TheAvengers2012'', Nick Fury refers to the Hulk as "he".

* In ''The Martian Menace'', a ''Franchise/SherlockHolmes'' novel by Eric Brown looking at the aftermath of ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds1898'' with {{Martians}} living on Earth in relative peace, Watson acknowledges that the Martians' nature means that they are [[NoBiologicalSex biologically best defined as "it"]], but since he feels such a term demeans the Martians, he generally refers to them as male in the novel.

* Inverted in Ness Brown's space horror novella ''The Scourge Between Stars''. Watson the droid is referred to as "it" by everyone but Dr. Otto, its maker, who calls Watson "she". However, this is actually the ''opposite'' of treating Watson like a person--he's an abusive creep who molests Watson, and calling it "she", far from an indicator of respect, is just another method of forcibly sexualizing it. Jacklyn, our protagonist, only ever calls Watson "it", but treats it far better.

* ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'': The Tzimisce Sascha Vykos self-invokes this to show how detached ''it'' is from humanity.

* In ''Film/GeorgeOfTheJungle'', when Ursula wakes up in George's tree-house, she is immediately freaked out by Ape. When Ape begins to move towards her, she screams, runs to George and asks "What does it want?" in fear. Cue Ape [[DeadpanSnarker snarking]] in a way that only ''Creator/JohnCleese'' can.
--> '''Ape:''' "It", wants "its" physician's desk reference.

-->'''[[OurVampiresAreDifferent Otto]]:''' You think I am an "it"? Vell, let me ''act'' like an "it"!

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': In ''Literature/GoingPostal'', when [[MoralGuardians Miss Maccalariat]] objects to {{golem}}s cleaning the ladies' restrooms, the protagonist Moist von Lipwig tries to explain that they often use honorifics like "Mister" with the golems employed at the post office because "it" seems wrong. That said, Miss Maccalariat still has issues because a "Mister" should not clean the lady's restrooms. So Moist gets around this by having the golem who would clean the bathroom as "Miss" and wear dresses. The next time we see this golem in

''Literature/MakingMoney'', [[HumanityEnsues the golem (now called Gladys) is a unique entity]].

** In "Literature/TheTruth" [[spoiler:Lord De Worde]] considers any non human this, and after calling [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire Otto Chriek]] this, he loses his composure.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': In ''Literature/GoingPostal'', when [[MoralGuardians Miss Maccalariat]] objects to {{golem}}s cleaning the ladies' restrooms, the protagonist Moist von Lipwig tries to explain that they often use honorifics like "Mister" with the golems employed at the post office because "it" seems wrong. That said, Miss Maccalariat still has issues because a "Mister" should not clean the lady's restrooms. So Moist gets around this by having the golem who would clean the bathroom as "Miss" and wear dresses. The next time we see this golem in ''Literature/MakingMoney'', [[HumanityEnsues the golem (now called Gladys) is a unique entity]].

AsYouKnow, in the English language, pronouns are divided into "he", "she" and the singular "they" for humans and "it" for inanimate objects and wild animals.[[note]]though animals may also be referred to with gendered pronouns.[[/note]] Referring to a person as "it" is usually incredibly rude, as it's considered tantamount to denying they are a real person. (Well, much of the time. "It", as can be seen by its usage with animals, used to be for various non-human entities, entities which are hard to classify as male or female, people who prefer the "it" pronoun, or entities of which you are unsure of. Nowadays, it's mainly only preserved in select sentences, such as "Who is it?")

* ''ComicBook/AstroCity:'' An alien empire refers to a human woman they've dragged back to their world in chains as "it", as part of their state propaganda machine (in addition to lies such as "humans don't love their families like ''we'' do", or claiming the obviously very normal human woman is a fiendish enemy operative).

* "Literature/{{Tattercoats}}": The titular character's mother dies at childbirth, leading the old lord to hate his granddaughter and declare "it might live or die like it liked, but he would never look on its face as long as it lived."

* Partly {{inverted|Trope}} in ''Literature/TheMurderbotDiaries'': Artificial intelligences like the protagonist are called "it" both by humans and by themselves. While humans have [[AndroidsArePeopleToo a range of opinions]] about the personhood of [=AIs=], the [=AIs=] themselves have NoBiologicalSex and don't [[BecomeARealBoy want to be human]], so "it" suits them just fine. The main character actually mentions in its narration that it prefers to "it" to any human pronouns, since it feels that doing so would be pretending to be more human-like as opposed to being a non-human ''person''.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E7MakeNewFriendsButKeepDiscord Make New Friends but Keep Discord]]", [[BlobMonster the Smooze]] is mostly referred to as "it" or a "thing", including by Discord, who isn't too convincing when he claims that he cares about his guest. The exception is Tree Hugger, who consistently uses male pronouns when talking about it.

** In "To Hel and Back", Helspont tries to break Superman's spirit by giving him a nightmare where the government is hunting him down. The soldiers yell stuff like, "There it is! Shoot it!"

** In a ''ComicBook/New52'' story, Superman gets captured by the government and subjected to torture and experimentation. The scientists and ComicBook/LexLuthor refer to him as "it".
** Later, Helspont tries to break Superman's spirit by giving him a nightmare where the government is hunting him down. The soldiers yell stuff like, "There it is! Shoot it!"

'''[[CloningBlues Superboy]]:''' ''[annoyed]'' Yes, "''[[ImStandingRightHere he]]''" can!\\

* ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' uses this with many characters when they talk about [[ArtificialHuman synths]], but one particular instance stands out, that being during the Blind Betrayal quest: [[spoiler:Danse is revealed to be an escaped synth who had his memory wiped, and Elder Maxson tasks you with tracking him down and executing him. Danse had absolutely idea he was a synth and has served the Brotherhood of Steel for years with unquestioning loyalty, but if you convince Danse that he [[TalkingDowntTheSuicidal deserves to live despite being a synth]] and then stand up to Maxson in his defense, Maxson disregards the fact that Danse is the best soldier he has and only refers to him as "it". Danse is visibly hurt.]]