This may be taking it over the edge, but my female English teacher in
high school taught me this:
The correct grammatical way to refer to someone of unknown sex as he.
When asked if this bothered her, she said "no, it is just proper
English." While I personally agree with this philosophy, it is quite
evident that some people in the pedia think it is sexist, and are
bothered by it. I will make every effort to address someone by their
true sex, or use their name, but when it come down to it, I will use the
grammar I was taught, since there will never be a consensus on this,
since any method is non-NPOV.
--
Michael Becker
-----Original Message-----
From: wikien-l-admin(a)wikipedia.org [mailto:wikien-l-admin@wikipedia.org]
On Behalf Of james duffy
Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2003 5.10
To: wikien-l(a)wikipedia.org
Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] WikiWomen (was Partial deletion)
Delirium wrote:
>Vicki Rosenzweig wrote:
>
>>What I think you're actually saying is that you *refer to* people
>>whose
>>gender
>>you don't know as "he". This has never been entirely standard, and
will
>>annoy
>>quite a few people at this epoch. Using full names, "they", and
>>workarounds
>>like "that person", is probably a better idea.
>
>
>Many people also dislike "they", because it's using plural forms (both
>the
>plural pronoun, and to be consistent, plural verbs) to refer to a
single
person. Those
people seem to be losing that particular battle though.
well "you" is singular and plural. So why not another pronoun?
>
>As of late I've noticed in much academic writing a preferred solution
>has
>been to simply use "she". It's not really any better than using
"he"
as
>far as correctness goes, but people are less likely
to complain about
it
being sexist,
well the trick with using "she" is to use "she" AND "he"
approximately
equally. Just pick one at random!
>I do find it somewhat jarring when I read it though, as I'm used to
>"she"
>being used to refer to people who are actually female, so it takes me
a
>minute to realize from context that it's being
used as a generic
pronoun.
now you know how female readers feel.... ;-)
Personally, where workable I use s/he. In articles, I use the gender
used in
primary documents if there is a primary document, and the gender of the
office-holder when talking specifically. On when writing about the
President
of Ireland, as the Irish contitution uses 'he' I use it when talking
theoretically about the office, she/her etc when writing in practice
about
the office as the current president is female. And a small note or
footnote
to explain usage so no-one reads any gender agenda between using either
form
and to avoid confusion. I have found in writing newspaper articles books
etc
that it works well once people know why things are in that form.
JT
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