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From: edhall@randvax.UUCP (Ed Hall)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: The Great Sexist Language Debate
Message-ID: <2512@randvax.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 31-May-85 14:32:15 EDT
Article-I.D.: randvax.2512
Posted: Fri May 31 14:32:15 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 4-Jun-85 00:41:57 EDT
References: <2221@decwrl.UUCP> <> <145@galbp.UUCP>
Organization: Rand Corp., Santa Monica
Lines: 39

>              i suggest changing these words so that they do not have
> "man" suffixes will not change this sexual bias. i can attempt to
> back my claim by asking which sex do most people think of when words
> like "taxi driver" or "cop" are used.

Well, having been driven by a few taxi drivers in my time who were
women, I really don't conjure up a person of a particular sex when
someone uses the term.  ``Cop'' is a little different, though as I
encounter more women working as police officers I suspect this will
shift, too.  (And ``police officer'' is already an unsexed term for
me... curious...)

> the real problem is and always has been one of perception, not merely
> what letters a word is composed of.

Exactly.  But as a higher and higher percentage of the taxi drivers and
cops I see are women, I'd sure like to be able to *talk* about this
without having to fight a prejudice built into the terms I use.  And
when my children see a woman working as a police officer, I'd rather
they not think of her as some sort of anomoly because they'd only
heard of policeMEN.

> and the real cure is a change in the perception of the words, not the
> words themselves.

The REAL cure is complex, and involves work in a large number of areas.
Language is only one of many.

> in other words, if a word is perceived to stand  for both sexes equally,
> then who cares how it is spelled?

Using new or clearly gender-neutral terms is a lot easier than waiting
generations for our preconceptions regarding generic pronouns or the
suffix -man to fade.

> ...akgua!galbp!bing

		-Ed Hall
		decvax!randvax!edhall