grw@fortune.UUCP (Glenn Wichman) (02/18/84)
A person suggested getting rid of the masculine & feminine
pronouns, leaving only genderless pronouns, to make the language
non-sexist. I don't believe this to be the case. Sexism is not
merely the recognition of two sexes; it is the subjugation of one
sex by another. As long as both sexes were treated as equal in
the language, the language is not sexist.
Most of the racism inherent in proper English was gotten rid
of during this century (e.g. using 'Mr.' only in reference to white
people, which was formerly the grammatically correct usage), but
the language still has words like 'black' and 'white' to refer to
people, and they are very useful to have.
-Glenn