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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!akgua!mcnc!duke!phs!sam
From: sam@phs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Sexism in language
Message-ID: <2219@phs.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 7-Apr-84 15:12:23 EST
Article-I.D.: phs.2219
Posted: Sat Apr  7 15:12:23 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 8-Apr-84 01:39:27 EST
Lines: 27


Re: sexism in language

There have been numerous studies which have shown that when one uses
the word "man"  people (of all ages and both sexes) see "male". I
don't have any references at hand; I would suggest you begin with
Chaeris Kramerae's book "Men and Women Speaking".   I recently
attended a seminar she gave here at Duke.  In discussing the question
of the use of male pronouns as generic pronouns ("he" to mean "he or
she") she mentioned something which may be of interest to the "linguistic
purists" who object to "changing the language on a whim".  Until
the early 1700s the generic pronoun in English was "they", used with
a plural verb.  The change to "he" meaning "he or she" was the result
of an ACT OF (the all-male) PARLIAMENT!!!  Maybe what we need is a
constitutional amendment to right this linguist wrong.

Incidentally, the women's college I attended did have some difficulty
with "freshmen" since there weren't any freshMEN on campus but calling
them freshwomen just invited bad jokes.  They ended up using "freshers"
which took some getting used to but was greatly preferred over freshmen.
I myself like the British nomenclature of first-years, second-years,
third-years, fourth-years.  As far as man-eating sharks, well, I think
that's unfair to the sharks.  They're just dinner-eating sharks, after
all. :-)

Sherry Marts
!decvax!duke!phs!sam