[net.women] rectangle analogy & sexism in language

debray@sbcs.UUCP (Saumya Debray) (04/05/84)

amd70!phil (Phil Ngai):

	> Sorry, I guess I just think male when I see "man". Does
	> anyone else have this "problem"?

I hesitate to bring up (once again!) a topic that, to my recollection, has
come and gone(?) at least thrice before on the net, but:

I'm not sure how serious Phil is.  Surely he doesn't think "male holes" when
he sees a manhole in the street?  How about "One small step for a man, a
giant leap for mankind" -- can he seriously propose that the sentence refers
to males exclusively (try the substituted "one small step for a male, a
giant leap for all males" ... )?  Perhaps man-eating sharks have no
appetite for female humans?  Are all college freshMEN males (not here at
Stony Brook, no siree!)?

I haven't seen any answers to Phil's question, "does anyone else have this
problem?", but for those who *do* have this problem, I suggest that some
serious rethinking might well be in order.



-- 
Saumya Debray, 	SUNY at Stony Brook

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amg@pyuxn.UUCP (Alan M. Gross) (04/09/84)

...

I think the point is that many women DO read those statements as
male-only.  They are bombarded with them constantly and want the
assault to stop.  I agree with them.

		Alan Gross
		ihnp4!pyuxn!amg