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

Subject: Re: Re. More she/he/it (pronounced "shee-it")
From: ",60j+iKT)vK9p5Gun!h;zsEJJrQ\\qi&Fr|" <khendry -at- NANDO -dot- NET>
Date: Mon, 7 Aug 1995 18:37:31 -0400

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.


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