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From: waltt@tekecs.UUCP (Walt Tucker)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Lakoff
Message-ID: <1779@tekecs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 3-Aug-83 19:23:40 EDT
Article-I.D.: tekecs.1779
Posted: Wed Aug  3 19:23:40 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 4-Aug-83 08:08:09 EDT
References: tekecs.1777
Lines: 29


**mild flame**

Do you seriously advocate doing away with the prefix denoting sex?  
Whether they are called "lady", "women", "gentleman", or "man" 
doctors, in some branches of the medical profession it is nice 
to know the sex of your doctor.

As an example, some women get nervous going to a male gynecologist,
but feel perfectly comfortable when the doctor is female.  That is
not to say that both are not competent, it is the nuroses of the 
patient that requires the prefix, not the profession. Another example
is surgery.  Irrational as it is, some patients prefer male surgeons
when "going under the knife".

I agree that in general and most other types of practitioning sex
couldn't make a damn bit of difference, but in some areas it be-
comes rather touchy (especially when treating special areas of the body).  
The medical profession is probably (one of) the largest areas in 
which customers (patients) request to know the sex of their 
contracting party (also because of the wide cross-section of society
the constitutes patients).  In these situations, the differentiation 
between male and female is going to occur, whether you like it or not.  

------Flame off---

                     Walt Tucker
                     (also Tektronix, about 100 feet from Ann)
                     tektronix!tekecs!waltt