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From: emjej@uokvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Re: Gender-Specific Pronouns (and "a
Message-ID: <4500008@uokvax.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 15-Jan-85 16:21:00 EST
Article-I.D.: uokvax.4500008
Posted: Tue Jan 15 16:21:00 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 18-Jan-85 02:25:40 EST
References: <914@amdahl.UUCP>
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Nf-ID: #R:amdahl:-91400:uokvax:4500008:000:2039
Nf-From: uokvax!emjej    Jan 15 15:21:00 1985

/***** uokvax:net.nlang / druxo!nap / 10:05 am  Jan 11, 1985 */
>Of course, *proper* grammar is of much greater importance than the
>deleterious effect of sexist language on half of humanity! :-)

Please, PLEASE, can *ANYONE* provide non-anecdotal evidence that using
"he" as the generic third person singular pronoun does horrible damage
to women and encourages nasty, sexist behavior and thought patterns?
What is valid about said claim, as opposed to my saying "Well, gee, I'm
male, so I guess I'm just generic--not like women, they're special. Oh,
God, I'm so depressed..." (apologies to Rich Rosen and Douglas Adams :-)
Do feminists who speak Romance languages worry about all those words with
the wrong "gender," or using the masculine ending for plural nouns describing
sets with at least one masculine element no matter what their cardinality?

>Besides, the singular *they* has a lot of precedence is scholarly writing
>as well as common usage by public figures:

>       Shakespeare: Everyone to rest themselves.
>              Shaw: It's enough to drive anyone out of their sense.
>  Scott Fitzgerald: Nobody like a mind quicker than their own.
>Dr. Mary Celderone: Everybody must develop their own standards of
>                    sexual morality.
>   The Phone Store: Give someone a phone of their own.
> Lord Chesterfield: If a person is born of a gloomy temper...they
>		    cannot help it.
>     J. F. Kennedy: If that person gets sick...they are in the hospital...
>      Senator Hart: ...the person who goes for food stamps does it
>		    because they are poor.

Yes, and it sounds just as ignorant when the famous do it as when you
and I do it. This is not a question of the Lords (or Ladies) of Grammar
thundering forth, it is the point of view mentioned by Mario Pei, where
the native speaker, asked by a person learning a language why one says
X instead of Y, has to eventually say, "look, buddy, everyone I know says
X, and if you don't want to be laughed at, you'll say X too."

						James Jones
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