Xref: utzoo news.admin:3061 misc.legal:5323 soc.women:12013
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!pcrat!rick
From: rick@pcrat.UUCP (Rick Richardson)
Newsgroups: news.admin,misc.legal,soc.women
Subject: Re: Proposed lawsuit
Message-ID: <532@pcrat.UUCP>
Date: 19 Jul 88 15:36:07 GMT
References: <12165@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <6272@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <7181@sigi.Colorado.EDU>
Reply-To: rick@pcrat.UUCP (Rick Richardson)
Followup-To: junk
Organization: PC Research, Inc., Tinton Falls, NJ
Lines: 57

In article <7181@sigi.Colorado.EDU> swarbric@tramp.Colorado.EDU (Frank Swarbrick) writes:
>In article <6272@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> sethg@athena.mit.edu (Seth Gordon) writes:
>>[*] If my reading of MES's complaint is correct, he feels that although
>>he is a woman, being referred to by the pronoun "she" is a violation of
>>his right to be called whatever he damn pleases.  I don't think this
>
>Isn't 'he' a neutral pronoun only when you don't know the sex of the person
>you are refering to?  We know that MES is female so we (many of us) call her
>'she.'  Besides, I've never heard of someone being sued for using incorrect
>grammar.

According to Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary (relevant
part cited here, see reference for full text):

she:	a girl, woman, or female animal

he:	a man, boy, or male animal

it:	the neuter singular form of the third person pronoun... it is used
	a) to represent anything regarded as having no sex...

woman:
	1) the female of the human race...
	3) the characteristic qualities of a woman...
	4) a man who is effeminate, cowardly, emotional, weak, etc...

man:
	1) a human being, whether male or female
	3) an adult male human being...
	6) a person with qualities conventionally regarded as manly,
	   such as strength, courage, etc.

I think that under these definitions, Mark could be referred to as
a "he" (he-->man:1), or a "she" (she-->woman:1).  Or perhaps through
the path he-->man:6, or she-->woman:4-->man:1.

But using "it" to refer to Mark is probably incorrect. My advice:

Mark:
	Stop worrying about the pronouns "he" or "she": they both
	can describe you (and probably anybody on this net) given
	the above definitions.
It-Sayers:
	Stop saying "it".  Say either "he" or "she".  Mark prefers "he".
She-Sayers:
	You may want to switch to "he" in the interests of furthering
	more productive use of Usenet.
He-Sayers:
	You do not need to do anything differently.


These are my first and last public comments on this subject.
-- 
		Rick Richardson, PC Research, Inc.

(201) 542-3734 (voice, nights)   OR     (201) 389-8963 (voice, days)
uunet!pcrat!rick (UUCP)			rick%pcrat.uucp@uunet.uu.net (INTERNET)