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Subject:Re: Evolving language or laziness? From:Tim Altom <taltom -at- IQUEST -dot- NET> Date:Fri, 15 Mar 1996 07:52:00 EST
At 10:43 AM 3/14/96, you wrote:
>"Many companies are now scuttling into cobwebby holes to avoid confronting
>angry feminists over "his" as the indefinite pronoun."
>Tim, the only time I become an "angry feminists" is when I read a sentence
>like the one above. It seems to me that the "generally-accepted guidelines"
>for writing in this list is to avoid offending its readers. I'm sure I'm
>not the only who cringed when reading that sentence. I hope in the future
>you can avoid such statements.
More detail please, Maria. What I wrote was the truth, and was not
intentionally written to offend anyone. However, I can't tell how you've
been offended unless you supply a little more detail.
Are you put off because companies are actually flailing about, worrying more
about the appearance than the substance? That, I'll grant you, is offensive.
Ask Colleen, the orignal poster, if the company that so solicitously uses
"their" for "his" if "they" offer on-site child care, or if they
consistently reward and promote women, or if they make special efforts to
give to local battered women's shelters. Yes, I'd join you in being offended
about that. But a simple statement of linguistic truth? Ah, that's not stuff
to give offense. That's just the way things are.
