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From: srm@nsc.UUCP (Richard Mateosian)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: sexist language/bad attitudes
Message-ID: <2522@nsc.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 27-Mar-85 01:59:04 EST
Article-I.D.: nsc.2522
Posted: Wed Mar 27 01:59:04 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 28-Mar-85 01:54:34 EST
References: <824@druxo.UUCP> <269@mhuxr.UUCP> <825@druxo.UUCP> <12080@watmath.UUCP> <544@hou5g.UUCP> <276@mhuxr.UUCP>
Reply-To: srm@nsc.UUCP (Richard Mateosian)
Organization: National Semiconductor, Sunnyvale
Lines: 28
Summary: 

In article <276@mhuxr.UUCP> mfs@mhuxr.UUCP (SIMON) writes:

>It is correct that sexism runs deep in American society.  It is not 
>correct that language modifications will do much to eradicate sexism. 

Neither of us knows for sure, but I think that you're wrong.  However, I,
like you, am conservative about language change, so I've walked a narrow
line on the subject.

When I was writing Inside BASIC Games, one of the first things my editor
did was to change a generic "he" to "he/she".  I wasn't willing to accept
that, but I recognized that something needed to be done.  The solution I
found was to write all of the descriptions of how to play the games in the
second person.  It worked quite well.  In fact, one reviewer, a woman, said
"I felt like the author was sitting beside me because of his easygoing
personal style."

Amusingly, there almost was one generic "he" in the book.  In describing
what had happened on a "screen" in which the following appeared:

Name: JOHN

I wrote "the player indicates that his/her name is JOHN".  Alas, my editor
changed "his/her" to "his" (same editor), but I later recast the description
to eliminate the "his".
-- 
Richard Mateosian
{allegra,cbosgd,decwrl,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!nsc!srm    nsc!srm@decwrl.ARPA