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Subject:Re: Evolving language or laziness? From:Janet Valade <jvalade -at- IX -dot- NETCOM -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 15 Mar 1996 15:18:59 -0800
>Writing shouldn't call attention to itself. But using "them" with a singular
>antecedent, or using a paragraph full of wordy "he or she" references (or
>worse, "s/he"), is distracting. I want my readers thinking of the subject
>matter, not my personal point of view.
As a female reader, I find it distracting to be referred to as "he". My
self-image does not include "he" at all.
But I continue to not understand why this seems to be so major for some people.
It seems to me to be a rare occasion when rearranging the sentence into some
grammatically correct shape that does not include "he" takes longer than a few
seconds.
