Re: The Gender Issue (PC)

[Suzette Seveny <sseveny -at- PETVALU -dot- COM>]

I might be off base here - so don't flame me if I am.

In french, all nouns have a gender.  I am not aware of any political issues
because of this.  As to your suggestion of writing in plural to avoid gender,
even plural nouns have a gender. As for the pronouns *it* or *they*, there is
still gender associated (e.g. ILS and ELLES are both THEY, depending on gender
of the noun).

I have never known this to be an issue (at least not in Canada).  I would love
to hear viewpoints from writers who work with these languages..

Suzette Seveny
Markham, Ontario, Canada
sseveny -at- petvalu -dot- com or suzette -at- yesic -dot- com
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Any opinions expressed are MY opinions.
Feel free to have your own.
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David Harrison wrote:
> One matter has always interested me about our current trend to avoid gender
> in
> these politically correct times. English (UK and US) is blessed with the
> magic
> words "the" and "a" which have no gender issues except by implication (indeed
> it
> is that very implication that lies behind the issue to start with). On the
> other hand, many European languages have masculine, feminine and, sometimes,
>  neuter genders,-- do you French, German, Italian (et cetera) writers live
> with the genders as part of your language? Or do you also have a similar
> challenge to be politically correct and avoid trying to fight it? Do you
> resort
> to other tricks (such as always writing in plural) to comply with the issue?
>
>

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