Re: Re. More she/he/it (pronounced "shee-it")

[",60j+iKT)vK9p5Gun!h;zsEJJrQ\\qi&Fr|" <khendry -at- NANDO -dot- NET>]

I think you summmed up why we don't need to agonize over gender-specific
language that we've all grown up with.  I have better (or more mundane!)
things to worry about right now.  I just signed up to TECHWR-L and have
read email from 5 Aug.  You folks are great.  Till we meet again, KarenHOn
Mon, 7 Aug 1995, Geoff Hart wrote:

>      A few folks have wondered why we estrogen-reduced,
>      shortened-X-chromosome females, colloquially and unpopularly known as
>      "males", would quibble over replacing "he" with "she" in text to
>      correct a perceived historical imbalance. (Yes, you'd type this way
>      too with tongue in cheek! A good oral surgeon can correct the
>      problem.)

>      At the risk of sounding logical, I'd have to note that this is as much
>      an issue of familiarity as a matter of male dominance of the
>      testosterone-impaired. I'd personally vote for calling us the
>      "inhuman" race based on recent behavior in what used to be Yugoslavia,
>      Chechnya, most of the Middle East, and on and on ad nauseum. And
>      although this would probably be more logical, it _is_ two letters
>      longer (strive for brevity!) and everyone would trip over it until we
>      got used to it... and then what would we do about the millions of
>      books already in print? I trip over "she" for the same reason:
>      familiarity. My solution is to use neither he nor she unless I have
>      to.

>      The real problem with replacing "he" with "she" is that it also
>      attempts to make one gender dominant over the other. To me, this is
>      equally discriminatory, and Momma taught me that two wrongs don't make
>      a right. The swap is also illogical given that it's generally easier
>      to write your way around the problem and reserve the gender-specific
>      for cases where the gender of the subject is truly important. And
>      aren't we supposed to use words precisely?

>      --Geoff Hart    @8^{)}
>      geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca

>      Disclaimer: If I didn't commit it in print in one of
>      our reports, it don't represent FERIC's opinion.