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Subject:Re: Gender biais From:Loren Castro <lfc -at- SOL -dot- CHINALAKE -dot- NAVY -dot- MIL> Date:Fri, 4 Aug 1995 14:35:32 -0700
> A couple of weeks ago, in a column of the Gazette (Montreal) devoted to
> language, the author suggests that if there are enough people who use "it"
> instead of "he or she" or "he/she", the practice will eventually be
> adopted by everyone.
> Does anyone have any opinion about the proposed solution?
"He or she" is barely tolerable and tedious. "He/she" and "s/he" are
abominable. "It" seems silly, but we say "it" when referring to a baby. It
all reduces to, as somebody already suggested, "s/h/it."
Why don't we convene the equivalent of a constitutional convention and create a
word for a gender-free singular personal pronoun and be done with it? I
nominate the STC to lead the effort and at the same time settle all the other
vexing problems that we quibble over. I see that the Council of Biology
Editors has decreed that commas and periods shall go outside the quotation
marks British style. Good for them. Come on, gang, let's put on a show--no,
no, no--let's create a group to settle all this business. Any volunteers?
Don't look at me. I follow rules; I don't create them.
lfc -at- sol -dot- chinalake -dot- navy -dot- mil
(Looking more and more toward those mountains.)
