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From: debray@sbcs.UUCP (Saumya Debray)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: sexist language/bad attitudes
Message-ID: <262@sbcs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 1-May-85 08:59:20 EDT
Article-I.D.: sbcs.262
Posted: Wed May  1 08:59:20 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 4-May-85 07:08:08 EDT
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Organization: Computer Science Dept, SUNY@Stony Brook
Lines: 24

> I postulate the following theory:  The use of the word 'he' as the gender
> neutral pronoun came into use because the male was considered more 'typical'
> of the species, not to mention more important. 

> 	marie desjardins

An intriguing hypothesis, unfortunately marred by a couple of flaws:

- In German, the word "sie" stands for both "she" and "they".  Perhaps
  German males were considered atypical of the species?  Or less
  important?  (Funny, I'd never thought of the Prussian officer class
  in that light!)

- In many Arabian- and Sanskrit-based languages, there _is_ no gender-
  specific pronoun (Bengali, for example, has one third-person singular
  pronoun, which is gender-neutral).  Believe me, these societies consider
  their males to be more important!
-- 
Saumya Debray
SUNY at Stony Brook

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