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From: mjc@cmu-cs-cad.ARPA (Monica Cellio)
Newsgroups: net.nlang,net.women
Subject: Re: Gender-specific responses to s/he
Message-ID: <218@cmu-cs-cad.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 4-Jan-85 19:13:03 EST
Article-I.D.: cmu-cs-c.218
Posted: Fri Jan  4 19:13:03 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 7-Jan-85 02:48:47 EST
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI
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Xref: watmath net.nlang:2326 net.women:3971

From: sun!sunny@DECWRL.ARPA (Sunny Kirsten)
>Try using "their" whether referring to one generic person or many persons:
>it's easier to read than he/she or his/her, and is gender non-specific.
>				Sunny

No, no, no!  Please!  *cringe*

On a more rational note... I think there are a lot of people out there who
have the same reaction to "their" that I do; I do a double-take because I
had thought the author was referring to a single person, and I sometimes will
look back to see if I've missed something.  Not that I can speak for women in
general, but I prefer "he" to "their" by several orders of magnitude, and I
think that all this "he/she", "he or she", and "s/he" nonsense is more
distracting than useful.

						-Dragon
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