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Is this sentence natural or at least grammatically correct?
At least he is not a simp, which many people are.
I was told that which shouldn't be used to refer to people, which seems to be confirmed by this writingcenter:
| Pronoun | Stands For |
|---|---|
| who | people |
| whom | people |
| whose | people or things |
| that | people or things |
| which | things |
It's not great poetry, but it's fine.
A "simp" may be a person, but it is also a thing.
Think of plumbers. They're people but they're also a profession (at least in abbreviation).
"This uniform is usually worn by plumbers, [one of ]which I am."
"Who" wouldn't work either here or in your example, as "who" would signal a particular flesh-and-blood person rather than category of person (whether it be a profession, an ugly intellectually category or something else).
Neither would "that", because it's not in a defining clause (one which identifies the particular person or thing you're talking about) but rather a non-defining clause (one which provides a new piece of information on an already identified person - in my case, me ... and in yours, 'he').
There's a joke about a double question that's reputed to have been asked far too often in the bad old days in Belfast: "who are ya, what are ya?", which is an inquiry about your name and background (including the neighbourhood and family you grew up in, where you went to school and what you do with your day).
Firstly "simp" is a rather nasty little word. Avoid it.
To expand slightly on BillJ's comment. One would use "who" when describing a person, but "which" when describing a type of person. Compare these two sentences
John is a butcher who won a prize for his burgers.
John is a butcher, which is one of the oldest professions.
The first is a description of John, the second is a description of the job. The second correctly uses "which".
In your example "simp" is type of person. It is a misogenistic word for a type of man. You should not use this kind of word.
