wisen (04/24/83)
#N:inmet:10900004:000:1327
inmet!wisen Apr 22 14:10:00 1983
A small note on the genderless pronoun debate, which probably should be
moved to net.nlang:
Fire fighters call themselves "fire fighters". Their union is the
International Association of Fire Fighters, and the fire fighters that
I have known don't appreciate the appellation "fireman".
I suspect that "policemen" want to be known as "police officers". And
"garbagemen" want to be called "sanitary engineers".
As for genderless pronouns:
Regardless of how difficult it is to change language, and how futile a
mere language change might be, I surely would appreciate a third person
pronoun that is comfortable for me to write (so scratch "he/she"),
comfortable for my female friends to read (so scratch "he"), doesn't
deny anybody's personhood (so scratch "it"), and isn't confusing (so
scratch "they").
It would take a long time for such a pronoun to reach the O.E.D., but
all that is needed for a new form of expression to become "popular"
("popularized"?) is for some famous person to use that expression on TV.
I suggest that every person desiring their genderless pronoun take
15 minutes to write President Reagan, requesting that he use genderless
pronouns in his next television address. That's just bound to work!
And soon we'll have Reaganlingusitics with our Reaganomics.
------------Bruce Wisentaner