From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!eagle!mhtsa!alice!npoiv!houxm!ihnp4!ixn5c!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!uicsl!wombat
Newsgroups: net.women
Title: Re: 'man' and non-sexist writing - (nf)
Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.1970
Posted: Tue Apr 26 23:49:56 1983
Received: Thu Apr 28 02:16:35 1983

#R:flairvax:-11600:uicsl:16400003:000:868
uicsl!wombat    Apr 26 13:11:00 1983

Do you suppose that the reason man can mean male person or all persons
is because back in the days of Old English women weren't
really considered persons, and the man=all persons definition was
accurate?  And why the distinction between woman and man(all), but
no distinction between man(male) and man(all)?  Don't rely so heavily
on what dictionaries say- just because the Webster's sitting on the
desk here says that 'mistress' means 'woman who has power ... as, the
female head of a household; a woman who employs or supervises servants'
or 'woman who has achieved mastery in some field' if you are told that
Fanny Friendly is Joe Blow's mistress, what are you going to think?
Children don't learn the etymology of a word when they learn the word,
and they are the hope for equality -- most grownups have already made
up their minds, for or against.
						Wombat