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From: ran@ho95b.UUCP (RANeinast)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Perchild and other Stupidity
Message-ID: <414@ho95b.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 17-May-85 15:01:05 EDT
Article-I.D.: ho95b.414
Posted: Fri May 17 15:01:05 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 18-May-85 01:36:12 EDT
Organization: AT&T-Bell Labs, Holmdel, NJ
Lines: 40

>>> There are plenty of words ending in "man" that have no good equivalent.
>>> Such as "human".  (Oh, NOW I'm going to get flamed!  :-) )
>>
>>No flame here, but you're right.  We once had a great time evolving
>>a friend's name:
>>
>>	Beckerman		sexist - "man"
>>	Beckerperson		sexist - "son"
>>	Beckerperchild		ageist - "child"
        ....

>    Groan!! NO! She was not right! {Frankly, I think she was kidding...}

>    Why is `man' in a word like `repairman', etc. considered sexist? Because
>    it REALLY DOES CONTAIN the word MAN. You can tell, because it has the
>    prefix `repair', and its plural is `repairmen'. `Human' is not such
>    a word. There is no such prefix as `hu-'; furthermore its plural is
>    not `humen'. Apparently, it needs to be stated again -- human derives
>    from Latin `homo', NOT English `man'.
>
>    And please, leave `person' exactly as is -- it cannot possibly
>    be derived from per+son. For the zillionth time, this word comes from
>    Latin `persona', meaning `mask' -- `sona' is related to `sound' (NOT 
>    `son') and combines with `per' to mean `that thru which one voice
>    emanates'. Roman masks originally doubled as voice amplifiers...
>

Uh, oh.  Then we'd better get rid of the word "woman".  It comes almost
directly from "wife (of) man", as if that's all that counts.
More seriously, I usually gauge these things by the image they confer
in my mind.  "RepairMAN" seems sexist because I subconsiously think
of a man.  Even though "woman" is derived as above, due to the evolution
of the language, it doesn't mean that anymore.  That's not the case
with "repairman".

-- 

". . . and shun the frumious Bandersnatch."
Robert Neinast (ihnp4!ho95b!ran)
AT&T-Bell Labs