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Re: "Michael Priestley mpriestley -at- vnet -dot- ibm -dot- com
"... was the
use of "he" instead of "she" responsible for the attention payed
to male anatomy? I would have thought other cultural factors
played a larger part, but as I said, I don't know the history
here."
Yes, I'd say that language plays a part in "cultural factors." Isn't
that the point of this discussion, that what people are called, whether
they are even included in the discussion, affects how they are
treated?
"... However, I am not
convinced that the issue has the profound sociological impact that
has been attributed to it. I am convinced it has _some_ impact,
but I'm not sure how much. The lack of a gendered pronoun in
Japanese, for example, doesn't appear to have had profound effects
on the role of women in Japanese culture."
