Re: The myth of sexist language

["Starr, Mike" <Mike -dot- Starr -at- SOFTWARE -dot- ROCKWELL -dot- COM>]

I would probably state it "You can open your personal file by..."

Mike Starr
mike -dot- starr -at- software -dot- rockwell -dot- com
 ----------
From: Jean D. Ichbiah
To: Multiple recipients of list TEC
Subject: Re: The myth of sexist language
Date: Thursday, August 10, 1995 4:35PM


In article <408nki$abp -at- nnrp3 -dot- primenet -dot- com> callie -at- writepage -dot- com (Callie)
writes:

>Instead of writing "Each user can open his personal file by ..." I would
>probably write "A user's personal file can be opened by ..."

>Callie

In a previous posting, I was mentioning this horrible trend to use
the passive form and here you are with an example.

This is very much germanic style "es wird getantzt"
(literally, "some dancing is going on").  Avoiding any mention of the
subject so that nobody ever knows who is really doing the thing.

I  worry that if this kind of speech becomes commonplace it will have an
influence on the way people act: avoiding responsibility, letting the thing
happen without ever knowing who decided.  Makes it easier if you later
want to claim that you were just following orders.

Coming back to your example:  "A user's personal file can be opened by using
the Open command of the File menu".  Who uses the open command?
The supervisor opening the user's file? The user opening the file? A friend?
And then is the command that achieves the effect or is is a convention:
 when
the command is used it is agreed with the system manager that (s/he!) will
instruct (her/is!)secretary to open the file.

So  you will have to try harder to match the clarity of "Each user can open
his personal file by choosing the Open command of the File menu."

Jean Ichbiah