mgp@uvacs.UUCP (05/04/84)
<The USDA has concluded that eating lines is hazardous to your health> I agree with Phil Ngai in using "I know a person who..." instead of "I know a man who..." Jeff Winslow argues that since a *specific* person is being referred to, the second format is okay. He concludes by saying > please don't tell me it's all about "being human" being more important > than being a man or a woman. It's kinda hard to be human without being > one or the other. But the point here is, that it in most cases, the gender of the person being referred to is unrelated to the purpose at hand. If that is not the case, the second form is acceptable. Otherwise, this usage perpetuates the male/female stereotypes. Maybe this isn't very clear, but here is a related example. If I said "I know a black man who ..." "I know a white man who ...", I am viewing people by their color instead of by their own qualifications. In the man/woman case I am placing people in an irrelevant category that conveys and perpetuates male/female stereotypes. Mark Pleszkoch University of Virginia decvax!mcnc!ncsu!uvacs!mgp
ntt@dciem.UUCP (Mark Brader) (05/08/84)
To this reader, "I know a person who..." sounds contrived. I would be quite likely to say "I know *someone* who...", though I might also substitute "a man" or "a woman" or "a guy" or ... Mark Brader