At 12:24 PM 12/11/98 -0500, Joe Clark wrote:
>A zippy buzzword there. Maybe *you'd* like to be referred to with a
>wrong-gender pronoun?
Doesn't bother me. I'm secure enough in my gender identity and other
aspects of my personality to not care about such nonsense.
>> This is grammatically correct. If there is one subscriber and the gender of
>> that subscriber is not known, then "he," "she," or "he/she" are all correct
>> options.
>
>It is not *socially accepted* anymore. There is no reason to assume
>an unseen person is male.
All depends on who the chief dictator of "socially accepted" is. Don't you
ever do things that Miss Manners wouldn't approve of? Of course you do.
>> As Miroslaw noted, let's hope that we really do have better things to
>> discuss than this ...
>
>It's an error in the Listserv software. It's germane.
I have no objection to discussing it here, but it is NOT an error. It is a
question of editorial judgment in the software. If a manual tells you how
to do something but you don't like the pronouns, does that make it WRONG?
Nope. It just means you don't like the style of the author and/or editor.
Same thing here. And THE editor (Eric) has already given his opinion of
such nonsense.
>Dubious. It can be easily explained.
Hmmmm. Doubt you've ever been an English teacher or an editor. I've been
both. And I'm very good at explaining things. However, trying to make
something logical from a language as mixed up as English is a non-trivial task.
>We are not discussing other languages.
But to a vast number of LISTSERV customers and users, English is a second
language....and probably a pretty silly one to them too.
>They speak the same language. "He" as a universal is just as wrong in
>Australia, Britain, Canada, the Ivory Coast, or Antarctica.
Only if they have the same grammar police and PC police that we have in the
USA.
>"Guys" means males. Using it to address heterogeneous groups is a bit
>rude. It's ridiculous when used to address an all-female group.
Ahhh....but you're arguing for language change. I can guarantee you that
there will be LOTS of language changes that you or others don't approve of.
Heavens, even the "Seven Words You Can't Say on [American] Television"
aren't seven any more.
>Look, you can't get around a basic fact: Assuming unseen readers are
>male is wrong.
No one is assuming they're male. They're assuming that many words have
lost their gender-specific meaning, which they have, whether you like it or
not.
cheers
dan
--
Dan Lester, 3577 East Pecan, Boise, ID 83716-7115 USA 208-383-0165
[log in to unmask] http://www.84.com/ http://www.idaholibraries.org/
http://library.boisestate.edu/ http://cyclops.boisestate.edu/
http://www.lili.org/ Sent me a postcard of a library yet?
|
