The dictionary has destroyed actor James Woods for an anti-trans tweet
Twitter users loved the dictionary’s response to James Woods. (Slaven Vlasic/Getty)
James Woods has been burned by the dictionary after posting false information about the singular they, which is often used by non-binary people.
The Once Upon a Time in America and Videodrome actor tweeted on Monday (February 11): “Please join me in using proper grammar, syntax, and spelling.
“The correct pronoun usage in the English language is ‘he’ for a singular male and ‘she’ for a singular female.
“‘They’ is used for the plural of either males, females, or both. Don’t be bullied by hare-brained liberals,” added Woods, who voiced Hades in Disney’s Hercules and this year’s popular Kingdom Hearts III video game.
“They has been in use as a singular pronoun since the 1300s.”
— Dictionary.com’s tweet to James Woods
This statement led to the US actor being destroyed by Dictionary.com, which quote-tweeted the post on February 12 and added: “They has been in use as a singular pronoun since the 1300s.
“Among its best known users in history: Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Jane Austen,” it continued, before linking to an informative article titled: “It’s OK To Use ‘They’ To Describe One Person: Here’s Why.”
Dictionary.com used facts to expose James Woods on Twitter (Dictionarycom/twitter)
Dictionary.com has a history of setting people right when they use incorrect terms to describe trans people.
Last year, when Fox News referred to trans Vermont gubernatorial candidate Christine Hallquist as “that transgender,” the company’s Twitter account clarified: “Transgender is an adjective, not a noun.”
In 2017, it was revealed that Merriam-Webster’s unabridged dictionary of 1934 featured the gender-neutral pronoun “thon”—short for “that one”—and continued to include the word until 1961.
James Woods has been slammed before for his anti-LGBT views
Woods has been criticised for his anti-LGBT opinions by other Twitter users before.
On New Year’s Day, the Donald Trump supporter posted a clip of Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper on CNN’s New Year’s Eve show with the caption “Men in 2019.”
In response, Cohen tweeted: “Assholes in 2019.”
In 2017, Woods shared a photo of a boy wearing make-up and attacked the child’s parents for letting him do so, implying that they were influencing the kid to become a murderer.
He wrote: “This is sweet. Wait until this poor kid grows up, realises what you’ve done, and stuffs both of you dismembered into a freezer in the garage.”
The comments were slammed by openly gay A Series of Unfortunate Events star Neil Patrick Harris, who happened to know the couple in the photo.
He tweeted: “Utterly ignorant and classless, Mr Woods. I’m friends with this family. You know not of what you speak, and should be ashamed of yourself.”
Harris’s rebuttal to Woods attracted more than 150,000 retweets and likes.
But in further tweets, Woods defended himself, hitting out at “vile” suggestions that he was homophobic while comparing the parents to child abusers.
He wrote: “Using one’s child as a social justice propaganda doll is tantamount to child abuse. This is not about homophobia. Nice try though.”
