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From: smann@iham1.UUCP (Sherry Mann)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: sexist language/bad attitudes
Message-ID: <351@iham1.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 8-May-85 12:58:08 EDT
Article-I.D.: iham1.351
Posted: Wed May  8 12:58:08 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 9-May-85 03:13:54 EDT
References: <846@druxo.UUCP> <674@wlcrjs.UUCP> <299@mhuxr.UUCP> <1039@utcsri.UUCP> <250@sbcs.UUCP> <309@h-sc1.UUCP> <262@sbcs.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 26

> > 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
> 
> 	uucp: {allegra, hocsd, philabs, ogcvax} !sbcs!debray
> 	arpa: debray%suny-sb.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa
> 	CSNet: debray@sbcs.csnet

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