From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!floyd!trb
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Title: Re: re: IT (and some other comments)
Article-I.D.: floyd.381
Posted: Wed Jul 21 11:07:49 1982
Received: Sun Jul 25 05:16:38 1982
References: ihuxv.195

I am not convinced that my changing my syntax from "he" to "heesh,"
"s/he," or "sheit" is going to let the next generation of children grow
up unencumbered by the psychological slantings of their elder's
feelings of bigotry and hatred.  I am also not convinced that it is
such a wonderful idea to apply pressure to another person or group of
people in order to get them to act in the way that you find most
palatable.

Ideally, "equal rights for all" is wonderful, but legislators always
lazily bow to pressures and it becomes "all men are created equal" or
"equal rights regardless of sex."  Seems to me that short people or
fat people or ugly people as a group have a lot more need for
legislated equality than women as a group.

The thought of using neuter forms in my speech makes the hair on my
neck crawl, because it makes what I say sound so ridiculous.

I dare say (and I'm sure someone out there will find this hard to
swallow) that if it bothers you when I use the male article (when a
neuter one would sound unnatural) then there is some other, deeper
problem with the way you feel I treat women, or, more likely, you
feel there is some problem with the way men treat women (or women treat
men).  Having me say "person" instead of "man" will be no victory.

This doesn't seem to be a problem of natural language as much as it
seems to be a problem of social friction.
	Andy Tannenbaum   Bell Labs  Whippany, NJ   (201) 386-6491