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Re: Gender bias (was Evolving language or laziness)
Subject:Re: Gender bias (was Evolving language or laziness) From:Steve Delanghe <zulu -at- CIX -dot- COMPULINK -dot- CO -dot- UK> Date:Tue, 19 Mar 1996 17:32:58 GMT
> When I read something that refers to me as "he," I'm not insulted.
> But I *am* distracted. And I think "What old fart wrote this? Is
I think you've probably hit on something. In my experience, men don't
usually personalise general statements. If they read "mankind is fond of
drugs", they don't get upset, because they don't take it as a personal
reference. Women, in my experience, have a lot of trouble with abstract
expressions of this kind, because they do take it personally.
On the whole, I believe that while some women are distracted by the use
of "he" as a gender-neutral pronoun, they are themselves trying to force
the issue by making a song and dance about it. I personally gag whenever
i hear "convince" used where I would expect "persuade", but I don't rant
about it.
Tim's arguments seem to me reasoned and moderate. (BTW, I wrote my MSc
thesis using she/her as gender neutral. You get used to it after a while
(8-)
Steve
zulu -at- cix -dot- compulink -dot- co -dot- uk
