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Subject:RE: Checking assumptions at the door? From:"SM Rush" <sellar -at- apptechsys -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 7 Jun 2001 16:50:41 -0700
>>Opinions to the contrary notwithstanding, "he" _is_ considered inclusive
in
modern discourse because it's become, for better or worse, the default.<<
If anyone seriously needs proof that "inclusiveness" was not the intent of
using "he" in most documentation, take a look at written material dealing
with the traditionally female professions such as nursing and secretarial
jobs. You'll find "she" used liberally, with nary a "he" to be found except
when references bosses or doctors. All sorts of assumptions being made
here, even up to the 1970s.
Note: this of course refers to the 20th century, as prior to then
secretaries were usually male, and nursing prior to Nightingale was often
regarded as one of the lowest of the low unskilled jobs.
It would be interesting to see if the same holds true for documentation such
as cookbooks and sewing patterns. It certainly was for non-documentation
writing, such as magazine articles, etiquette books. I suppose an argument
could be made that the audiences for these would be nearly exclusively
female and so the "default" would be inappropriate. But not by me.
And let's not forget how likely it was for *working-class* women to be able
to read back in the seventeenth/eighteenth centuries.
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