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Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watdragon!violet!pacolley
From: pacolley@violet.uwaterloo.ca (Paul Colley)
Subject: Re:  Inclusive language...
Message-ID: <1990Oct29.135540.3879@watdragon.waterloo.edu>
Sender: daemon@watdragon.waterloo.edu (Owner of Many System Processes)
Organization: University of Waterloo
References: <1990Oct27.165810.4278@watdragon.waterloo.edu>
Distribution: uw
Date: Mon, 29 Oct 90 13:55:40 GMT
Lines: 38

In article <1990Oct27.165810.4278@watdragon.waterloo.edu> 
deghare@lady.waterloo.edu (Dave Hare) writes:

>  To Paul:

> [...]    You actually go even further: you use the salutation "Dear Sir"
>    even when you *know* the recipient is a woman.  This is the height of
>    insensitivity, and if the recipients of those letters didn't let you
>    know it, perhaps it was not because, as you imply, they were not
>    offended, but rather because they could not afford to be offended,
>    that their situation demanded that they feign indifference.

Dave has misinterpreted some of what I wrote.  I'd like to clarify
what I meant:

"The height of insensitivity" implies Dave didn't read what I wrote.  I
said that I didn't know that "Dear Sir:" was gender-biased.  If I
believed that the phrase was neutral, I do not think I was "the height
of insensitivity" to use it.  I may have been "wrong".

"The height of ignorance", I would accept.

Similarly, I did not think that I implied that they weren't offended,
merely that I got the job despite any offence they may have felt, which
I appreciate.  I used the word "fortunately", which I thought implied
that I recognize in retrospect the potential to offend.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Would someone like to suggest a respectful, gender-neutral salutation?
Again, the style handbook in the back of Webster's Dictionary leaves
"Dear Sir:" as the only candidate, but at least one person (Dave Hare,
as quoted above) has indicated that it is for addressing males only.

- Paul Colley
  pacolley@violet.waterloo.edu or .ca
  "Quantum Mechanics:  The dreams stuff is made of"    - Ken Burnside