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From: mfs@mhuxr.UUCP (SIMON)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: "them" vs. "it" vs. "he" vs. "she"
Message-ID: <314@mhuxr.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 10-May-85 23:39:51 EDT
Article-I.D.: mhuxr.314
Posted: Fri May 10 23:39:51 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 11-May-85 04:44:25 EDT
References: <378@ttidcc.UUCP> <557@mnetor.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
Lines: 17

> What offended my feminist sensitivities at the tender age of 5 was that the
> plural of one man and one woman is masculine!  As it was put to us then,
> "if you have one male cat in the same room as 100 female cats, you will
> have to say 'ils'".   I still have trouble swallowing that one!
> -- 
> Sophie Quigley

I can see the potential for offense, but in a language with no neutral
pronoun, they had to make a choice. Since the Academie Francaise is
full of old male reactionaries, their choice of the male pronoun
should not be surprising. The alternative is to use the female
pronoun, which is also unsatisfactory. A solution is to avoid
using pronouns and say things like (in the context of the above
example) 'les chats' (I know that the generic 'cat' is masculine;
oh well, back to the drawing board)

Marcel Simon