daemon@decwrl.UUCP (02/04/84)
From: akov68::boyajian
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NOTE: I sent this off to the net.women newsgroup on 31 January, but as of 4 Feb.,
I still haven't seen it show up. Since my posting seems to have gotten lost,
I'm re-posting it. If the case is that I am just missing a mailing, and you
people are reading this for a second time, my apologies.
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First off: Bravo! to Laura for the flame on this subject, even though my
objections aren't so heartfelt, or at least not in the same way.
Personally, as a fan of the English language, I dislike the "un-genderizing"
trend that is the latest rage: substituting "he/she" or somesuch for "he". Or the
"---person" business. I was brought up to understand that the masculine third person
pronoun was "he", the feminine was "she", and the generic was "he". It never, NEVER
occurred to me that the masculine pronoun was also used as the generic, but that the
two happened to use the same word. What is the difference, you might ask? Well,
"rock" is used to mean both "stone" and "to sway back and forth". Does that indicate
that "stone" is used to mean "to sway back and forth"? No, the two definitions of
"rock" are for two separate words. So are "he" (generic) and "he" (masculine).
Aside from the moral implications of changing an author's words (hell, where
will it stop?), I don't think it'll accomplish anything. It's my opinion that
changing the English language will not end sexist thought. On the other hand, ending
sexist thought will obviate the need to change the English language.
It could well be that many of you will think that it's easy for me to think
this way since I'm a man, but I've got some arguments for that:
(1) I know some women who feel the same way (In fact, one of them once men-
tioned taking great delight in stating in a paper she wrote in college something like
(I'm quoting from memory) "...but that position has been refuted by better men than
I...").
(2) I happen to speak some small amount of German (it's been years since
I've done any reading or studying in it) and it so happens that "sie" is used for
both the feminine and the generic third person singular (the corresponding pronouns
in the other cases are likewise), and the same word, with a capital ("Sie") is
used as the formal form of "you". In no way do I feel threatened (as a man) by this
usage.
It's always been obvious to me from context when "he" is used to mean
men or men-and-women, and if everyone was educated this way, then there would be
no problem.
---jayembee
(Jerry Boyajian @ DEC Maynard)
(decvax!decwrl!rhea!akov68!boyajian)