Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site cmu-cs-cad.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!godot!harvard!seismo!rochester!cmu-cs-pt!cmu-cs-cad!mjc 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 Lines: 19 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 -- UUCP: ...seismo!ut-sally!ut-ngp!lll-crg!dragon ARPA: monica.cellio@cmu-cs-cad or dragon@lll-crg