user (07/22/82)
I have read Mr. Alexander-Manifold's articles on the use of non-sexist language with an amount of strong interest. For I firmly believe that sexism exhibits egocentrism, narrow-mindedness, and pure bad manners. Now that I have established my position, I would like to say that I wholly disagree with the manner in which he is personally combatting sexism. In the time and age in which we live, to use the term chairperson and other sexless nouns is to earmark one's self as a overly sensitive person who is easily offended. Now I do not mean to say that a person such as this truly is offended, but to use Mr. Alexandar-Manifold's own reasoning: the words you use have a profound effect on how people perceive you and the manner in which they treat you. When I hear some- one using the word 'chairperson,' I automatically come to the conclusion that either the chairperson is a woman, or that a women's libber is plays some other strong role in this person's life. The user of the word 'chairperson' must be extremely conscious of his or her sex. Let me sway from the point that sexless words have a earmark on them that states the user's philosophy of life. Consider the sheer magnitude of his task. Never utter any word that has the root 'man,' or an equivalent sexist root. To edit the English language in such a manner would change hundreds, if not thousands of words. Let me say that the solution is not "elegant" from a computer scientists point of view. An analogy would be to individually take off all the leafs from a tree in order to see through it, rather than just simply trimming the branches or cutting the tree down. Another analogy (a better one) is for a doctor to treat all the symptoms of a disease rather than simply curing to root of the disease. All this it to simply say, I beleive that language is formed by ideas, and that ideas are formed by language; HOWEVER, philosophy is formed by conscience and inner beliefs, not by the manner in which the language presents conscience and inner beliefs. So, Mr. Alexandar-Manifold, you have failed in that your very actions betray a bias toward neutrality. People who prefer chairman will sneer at you and you will sneer at him, but no attitudes have changed, and you have only provided a forum for discontent for yourself. Andrew Jonathan Austin (reply through the net)