paulina (05/10/83)
I have been reading the MANY submissions about genderless pronouns and would like to add my two cents worth. First, I personally am not happy with the he/she problem but I try not to let it bother me. I don't feel that it is all that important. However, I do find it amusing that some of the people who are most insistent on 'he' being the pronoun for 'person' will refer to a unknown nurse (or kindergarden teacher or substitute any traditionally female job) as 'she'. If you call them on it, they will say that MOST of those people are female. True enough, but a little inconsistent. I just get tired of being told I (the engineer, he) either don't exist or am male. I was surprised to see that no-one took exception to the often repeated idea that changing the words people use doesn't change the way they think. I believe it does (in a small way). For example, look at the difference between the words 'girl' and 'woman'. The two words have very different connotations. (I will let you fill in your own). Think for a moment what it would feel like to work as an equal with a girl. Then think what it would feel like to word as an equal with a woman. No difference ? Now think what it would feel like to work for a girl versus for a woman. Be honest. Doesn't it feel different ? I have found that by asking my cohorts to refer to (and think of) me as a woman (as opposed to a girl), they treat me more as an equal. Of course, I VASTLY prefer to be refered to as a person or an engineer in the work context. However, my point is that by changing the word that people use when talking about me, I have observed changes in the way they treat me. That's close enough to changing the way they think for me. Paulina