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Re: Gender neutrality and the multiple-personality third-person pronoun

Subject: Re: Gender neutrality and the multiple-personality third-person pronoun
From: Janice Gelb <janice -dot- gelb -at- sun -dot- com>
To: TECHWR L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 09 Jan 2006 10:26:49 -0800

Nuckols, Kenneth M wrote:


I don't know what the answer is, but I definitely think the time for a
gender-neutral single personality pronoun has come. Normally I would
argue for using the indefinite pronoun "one" or "oneself" but for that
to make sense in the sentence you quote would demand a serious re-write.

I know it has serious de-humanizing connotations, but maybe we
professional writers and the academics who train future generations
should just start advocating the use of "it" "its" and "itself" when
referring to a single person whose gender is unknown. After all, we use
the same when referring to non-human mammals of unknown gender, so why
not use it for people of unknown (or unpredictable) gender as well?
>

Because nearly always, you can rewrite the sentence to
avoid gender specificity or objectifying people. In
this example, using the word "surrender" (as someone
else already noted) solves the difficulty.

-- Janice
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RE: Gender neutrality and the multiple-personality third-person pronoun: From: Nuckols, Kenneth M

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