Basic Trope: A person dehumanizes another by referring to them as 'it'.
- Straight: To show that she is a nobody, Bob refers to Alice as an 'it'.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob only uses the 'it' pronoun in reference to Alice, never even dignifying her by using her name.
- Bob's Abusive Parents don't even refer to him by name, so he ends up believing that his name really is "It" and calls himself that until people find out that he actually has a name.
- Downplayed:
- Bob refers to Alice as "that one", "that person", "that woman" or "her".
- Justified:
- Alice did something so horrible that Bob believes that she has lost her humanity.
- "Alice" is a Humanoid Abomination to whom the concept of sex and gender aren't even applicable.
- "Alice" is a combat robot that has No Biological Sex.
- Bob just really hates Alice.
- Alice is a transgender woman, and Bob is a transphobic Jerkass who decides misgendering her with he/him pronouns doesn't go far enough.
- Alice is dead or becomes the Flesh-Eating Zombie. Bob doesn't see her corpse as Alice, he sees it as a thing that used to be Alice.
- Alice is a member of an alien or fantasy species that has No Biological Sex and/or are suffered from Fantastic Racism from Earth humans.
- Inverted:
- Bob, thinking his car has feelings, refers to it as a "he".
- Alys is nonbinary, and refers to itself with "it/its" pronouns to reclaim them. Bob, assuming (or knowing) it was assigned female at birth, refers to it with she/her pronouns to showcase his jerkass-ery.
- The alien Troperians are neuter and completely sterile, lack any sexual organs and reproduce by breeding mindless drones to produce more sapient members of their species. Referring to sapients with gendered pronouns is taboo akin to a horrific slur implying that they are sub-sapient beasts to be experimented upon to produce 'real' people.
- Subverted:
- The 'it' Bob refers to was actually Alice's offensive shirt.
- It turns out that Bob and Alice are members of a One-Gender Race where "it" is the usual pronoun.
- Bob turns out to be a robot from a Scavenger World who like everyone else had to take components to survive. "It" is always used to refer to corpses akin to using the past tense to refer to the dead.
- Double Subverted: Then he goes back to calling Alice an 'it' for wearing an offensive shirt.
- Parodied:
- Scuffy is a dog and Bob refers to it as an 'it'. He wonders why people gasped in horror as if he dehumanized the dog and treated it as a nobody.
- Bob refers to a ship as an 'it' rather than an 'her'. Everyone proceeds to chase him with torches and pitchforks.
- Zig Zagged:
- Alice was killed in an accident and her spirit was transferred into a Ridiculously Human Robot. Bob refers her as an 'it' on an account that she is technically not human, but still respects her as a human being.
- Charlie refers to the human looking robot Alice as "she" while Bob refers to her as "it". It's not clear which one of them is correct, as it is possible that Alice's feelings are merely Charlie projecting his own.
- Averted: Bob refers to Alice as 'she'.
- Enforced: Referring to other people as "it" is a good way to deliberately make a character unsympathetic.
- Lampshaded:Alice: I'm a 'she', Bob! Not an 'it'!
- Invoked:
- Bob wants to point out how much of a nobody Alice is.
- Alice refers to herself as "it" to embrace how monstrous she is.
- Exploited: David, Bob's enemy, spread this around to show Bob as a bigot.
- Defied: "Just because I hate Alice doesn't mean I want to call her 'it', she is just a bitchy one."
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Implied:
- Alice complains about being referred to as an object, but we never see anybody address her as an 'it'.
- Bob makes several statements referring to 'it' but it's always ambiguous who or what is talking about.
- Deconstructed: Being referred as "it" makes Alice questions her own humanity and begins to hate herself.
- Reconstructed: Alice is an Serial Killer who lives in the place where people fear of copycats crimes and encouraging other attacks by giving publicity and humanity to the criminal, so calling her "it" instead of directly mention "its" name is considered good in this society.
- Played For Laughs: Referring Alice as an it becomes a Running Gag in the show.
- Played For Drama: Alice is Driven to Suicide after many others catch up on Bob's referral to Alice as 'it'.
Back to "It" Is Dehumanizing.
