Emma D’Arcy has been one of the newest stars on the soap opera stage since 2022. Her role in HBO’s “” has suddenly catapulted D’Arcy from a very niche but promising star to the most important name in the last few months. Although she plays Queen Rhaenyra, whose main problem is the lack of recognition of her power because of her gender, Emma D’Arcy openly identifies as a non-binary person in the real world.
Something that is no longer a problem in the broadly understood West (the pronouns “they / them” are commonly used in English-speaking areas) is still quite a challenge in Poland. And, as it turns out, it is also the subject of a real dispute and intense discussion. Since 2022, editors have been fighting over pronouns on the Polish Wikipedia under the entry “Emma D’Arcy”. While some change D’Arcy’s terms to “actor’s person” or commonly recognized neutrals, others return to rigid binary terms, signing D’Arcy (against her wishes) as “she”.
Polish Wikipedia at War with Emma D’Arcy’s Pronouns
The pronoun war has been going on in the Polish parts of Wikipedia since the first information about the identity of Emma D’Arcy. Regardless of the solution to the issue of non-binary people proposed by the Polish Language Council (neuter gender in the 1st and 2nd person singular – “byłom”, “byłoś”) or Jerzy Bralczyk (neuter gender, i.e. referring to a non-binary person as “ono”), for a year and a half the editors of the Polish Wikipedia have been changing Emma D’Arcy’s pronouns and terms from neuter or plural (“osoba actorska”, “oni”, “ono”) to a female person, which D’Arcy wants to avoid. The dispute has heated up in the last few weeks on the occasion of the premiere of the second season of “Rod dragona” on the Max platform, in which D’Arcy plays one of the main roles. It was necessary to supplement the Wikipedia entry, but as a result of the changes, the discussion about the pronouns and terms used is already much longer than the Polish entry itself.
Emma D’Arcy – Polish Wikipedia Photo: Wikipedia / frame
Since November 2022, Emma D’Arcy’s persona has undergone almost 50 changes regarding the issue of which pronouns should be used (for comparison – the much longer English-language note has only a few). When “actress” was first replaced with “persona actor”, the changes were withdrawn after a few days – another Wikipedia editor tried to invoke “rules of the Polish language”. The year 2023 was marked by modifying D’Arcy’s pronouns to neutral and restoring them to binary form, and the conflict peaked last 24 hours, when eight changes were made to the same issue in seven hours. The changes were publicized by one of the popular Polish bloggers, Slwstr, who has been commenting on ideological online and real-life disputes for years.
Emma D’Arcy / Wikipedia Photo: Wikipedia / frame
There is no such problem not only in the English Wikipedia, but also in the German Wikipedia, which is very attached to pronouns. The French Wikipedia also coped with this challenge (although not without dispute and references to the “universality of use” of neuters in the language), as did the Spanish and Portuguese, where the neutral neuter form was finally chosen.
Emma D’Arcy identifies as non-binary
In 2022, Emma D’Arcy was named one of the most important new TV stars. Previously rather unknown, D’Arcy began to appear on the covers of newspapers thanks to her role in HBO’s “The Dragon’s Bloodline”. They took the opportunity to draw attention to the increasingly discussed issue of non-binary people, who in Polish fit the rarely used neuter pronouns, while in English the plural “them / they”. Speaking about the role of Rhaenyra Targaryen in an interview with “”, D’Arcy used the following words:
“(Rhaenyra) is terrified of being stuck in this role of motherhood and she’s very aware of how different her position is as a woman in the court compared to a man. I’m a non-binary person. I’ve always felt a pull and push towards and away from female and male identities. I think that’s what allows me to play this role so believably,” says Emma D’Arcy.
The linguistic problem with non-binary people in the Polish Wikipedia concerns not only Emma D’Arcy. The fight for modifications of pronouns and terms also continues (although on a smaller scale) under the entry of Bella Ramsey, an actress known from “Game of Thrones”, “Hilda” and “The Last of Us”, Nemo – this year’s winners of the Eurovision Song Contest, or Emma Corrin, playing the role of Princess Diana in the 4th season of “The Crown”.
which could take a binding position on the correctness of the forms we use to refer to non-binary people in language, has so far defined itself on the issue of using the 1st and 2nd person singular. However, this is a position from 2003, which – although still relevant – does not match what has been happening in living language for several years. A slightly more up-to-date position is that of Jerzy Bralczyk, who in a conversation with in 2021 suggested the neutrum “ono” in the singular:
Should we introduce an additional grammatical gender? I don’t think so. It’s not needed in the language. If someone is offended by the singular masculine or feminine term, they can use the neutrum – “ono”. (…) The neuter gender can theoretically be used in reference to people who are non-binary – says the linguist.
The most up-to-date pronouns proposed for non-binary people can be found on the website , created with the correct and inclusive use of the living and changing Polish language in mind. Non-binary people are suggested to use the neutral gender (“zrobiłom”) and neutral terms (e.g. “autorum” with the Latin ending “um”). Increasingly often in spelling, you can see the use of iks (“byłx”) or the so-called osobtyw (“persona actorska”). And if you have a problem with which pronouns to use in a conversation with a non-binary person, the easiest way is to… ask at the source. The question “excuse me, how should I address you?” has never dropped a crown from anyone’s head.
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
