Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site sbcs.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!sbcs!debray
From: debray@sbcs.UUCP (Saumya Debray)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: "Sexist" language rerun
Message-ID: <444@sbcs.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 18-Aug-83 10:34:23 EDT
Article-I.D.: sbcs.444
Posted: Thu Aug 18 10:34:23 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 19-Aug-83 23:24:25 EDT
References: <1834@tekecs.UUCP>
Organization: SUNY at Stony Brook
Lines: 13


I don't know about Turkish or Finnish, but I *can* answer for an Indian
language descended from Sanskrit:
There are *no* gendered pronouns in Bengali: there is only one third person
singular pronoun, applicable to either sex. Bengali society couldn't be
called "non-sexist" by any stretch of the imagination.

I agree with Jeff Winslow: it's not the language that makes a society sexist.
Or racist. Or prejudiced in any of a hundred other ways. It's the people,
and that's what you'll want to change.

Saumya Debray
SUNY at Stony Brook