[net.nlang] Sexist language again!

wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) (01/07/86)

Since I hadn't seen any recent outbreaks of the recurring "sexist
language" discussion we thrash about with periodically, and since a
local weekly paper had the following article, I thought I'd throw it out
into the swamp and see what it stirs up...

From the St. Louis, MO "South Side Journal" (Date uncertain; late Dec. 85):

MAN INVENTS PRONOUNS  by Robbi Courtaway, Journal Staff Writer

What the world really needs is a good, five-cent, third-person, singular
pronoun that refers to both genders.

That's the opinion of Russell Hogan, chairman of the English department
at Clayton High School, who recently discussed word usage for an article
that appeared in the Journal.

Anyone who speaks or writes at length probably agees with Hogan. Getting
around the gender problem with personal pronouns is difficult;
alternatives are available, but they don't quite hit the mark.

For example some people use he or she and his or her, or he/she and
his/her. But when he/she is using his/her throughout a long
dissertation, he/she can get very tired of using he/she or his/her.

S-he is a new angle. However, the problem of what to do about his/her
and him/her remains unsloved.

Others, perhaps with the idea that one is never alone if one is
schizophrenic, chose the convenient yet plural they, them, and their.
Each person may do what they want in this case, as long as their
personalities agree.

Disgusted with the alternatives? Relief is in sight.

Paul Schult of University City has invented the "Both-Gender-Inclusive-
Third-Person-Singular Pronoun."

Despite the name, the idea is simple.

"E" (pronounced ee, as in eek) is used as a both-gender alternative to
he or she. "H" (pronounced heh, as in ahead) is used for him or her. Hie
(rhymes with pie) is used for his or her and hers, and hieself (rhymes
with myself) is used or himself or herself.

Schult uses a quote from Thoreau to illustrate his new pronoun:

"The most I can do for my friend is simply to be hie friend. I have no
wealth to bestow on h. If e knows that I am happy in loving h, e will
want no other."

A staff development specialist for the Missouri Division of Family
Services, Schult came up with the idea for the pronoun in the early '70s.

"Most of the employees here are women; I think the whole field of social
work has more female staff than male," Schult explained. "It just made
me conscious that the commonly used he was frequently inappropriate."

"So one day I was sitting around thinking of pronouns to use. I
experimented with different types of things and nothing seemed to be as
simple (as e, h, hie, and hieself).

"No other words have their meanings. They are easy to use, frugal of
ink, neat in form, and pleasant to read, hear, or say."

Has Schult made any converts?

"Not that I'm aware of. People who read them seem to like them, but they
don't use them," he said. "Even my supervisor says, 'Don't use them --
use he or she.' But I editorialize once in a while (while training
staff social workers) and write them on the blackboard."

Hogan was impressed with Schult's invention.

"I thought it was clever and well done, and he'd certainly given it a
lot of thought," Hogan said.

But will it ever enjoy widespread acceptance?

"It's very hard to get people to change, to do something like that," he
said.

Hogan said many of his colleagues, who work regularly with the
language, have settled on using they, them, and their.

"It's in such widespread usage, and the feeling seems to be,
'Everybody's doing it so it's going to be OK,'" Hogan said.

"Not in my writing, though."
***End of article***

Any remaining typos are due to me alone -- Will

lamy@utai.UUCP (Jean-Francois Lamy) (01/11/86)

If you think that using he/she yields unreadable prose, you should
see what student journals and associations in Quebec do to look non-
discriminatory: they systematically refer to e.g. "etudiant-e-s", putting
both gender marks on all words which can take them. When they get tired
of doing that, they insist on using both genders. The graduate association
at my department used to be called 
"Association des etudiants et etudiantes en etudes superieures du
 departement d'informatique et de recherche operationnelle"

-- 

Jean-Francois Lamy
Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto,
Departement d'informatique et de recherche operationnelle, U. de Montreal.

CSNet:      lamy@toronto.csnet
UUCP:       {utzoo,ihnp4,decwrl,uw-beaver}!utcsri!utai!lamy
CDN:        lamy@iro.udem.cdn (lamy%iro.udem.cdn@ubc.csnet)