Xref: utzoo news.admin:3078 misc.legal:5352 soc.women:12058
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!teknowledge-vaxc!wlieberm
From: wlieberm@teknowledge-vaxc.ARPA (William Lieberman)
Newsgroups: news.admin,misc.legal,soc.women
Subject: Re: Proposed lawsuit
Keywords: Sexual, gender, discrimination,pronouns,language
Message-ID: <23951@teknowledge-vaxc.ARPA>
Date: 20 Jul 88 23:57:23 GMT
References: <12165@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <6278@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <12180@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <1040@unccvax.UUCP> <23898@teknowledge-vaxc.ARPA> <792@isieng.UUCP>
Reply-To: wlieberm@teknowledge-vaxc.UUCP (William Lieberman)
Organization: Teknowledge, Inc., Palo Alto CA
Lines: 33

In article <792@isieng.UUCP> roy@isieng.UUCP (Roy Wells) writes:
>In article <23898@teknowledge-vaxc.ARPA> wlieberm@teknowledge-vaxc.UUCP (William Lieberman) writes:
>>Someone told me the term "mailman" in Boston was recently changed to 
>>"personperson".  I don't believe it, but I bet it's not too far from
>>the truth. I suppose if you do a little lexicographic investigation,
>
>No, there is not personperson.  "Mailmen" are now "letter carriers", 
>a term no more descriptive or accurate, but much more "gender neutral".

In our English language, it is fairly easy to neutralize words, giving
new constructions which are easy to adopt, such as 'letter carrier',
'fire fighter', 'ombudsperson??', etc.

What I would like to know is, does anybody have any information on 
suggested gender neutralizing in those languages where every noun
has a gender?  For example, every single noun in the French language
(am I not correct, oh Academie Francaise?), when singular, is
either and only masculine or feminine (le or la) - NO EXCEPTIONS!

So, for example, even if they tried to make up a new construction, such
as 'letter carrier', it would come out something like " macho-man
letter carrier", assuming it would be the masculine form. Or
rough transliteration: " le letter carrier ". (In the province of
Quebec, the provincial government (provincial is not used as an
aspersion here) wildly makes up ridiculous constructions all the
time, to keep the population (the French-speaking portion) from
falling into the evil ways of English-language  terms - take baseball terms-
they're a riot)

What thoughts have been given (if any) to removing gender-related terms
when both genders are referred to, in languages such as French?  (le/la 
constructions - they look so tedious and boring)

Bill Lieberman