ellis@spar.UUCP (Michael Ellis) (05/24/85)
>I was serious. I really think that the generic term for a person should be >"man", and that the generic pronouns should be "he", "him" and "his". The >psychology of this is phenomenally powerful...it does not demand that anyone >change his concept of "manhood" to one of "personhood", but rather that a >female of our species be considered part of mankind. >...It just makes too much sense to argue with, doesn't it? > -- Cheryl Stewart BMOC I do not see how this suggestion, to support the status quo, addresses the problem at hand in any way. Since you've apparently forgotten, let me summarize. {man,he,him,his} are subject to the abuse illustrated by the utterances below: "All men are created equal" "XYZ Corp. needs a salesman with knowledge in Cosmic Defrangibrators. The applicant must demonstrate his expertise in the following: ..." Statements like the above have long been used to conceal prejudice. Do you refuse to see the potential for manipulation implicit in the scheme below? MALE FEMALE GENERIC man woman man mankind womankind mankind he she he him her him The failure of your non-proposal can only be corrected by one of the violent approaches below: (1) Add new words to be replace {man,he,him,his} as exclusively male terms (2) Delete the feminine terms {woman,she,her,hers} No way.. -michael