Claiming that the author is sexist for using "he" in a gender neutral setting, which has been standard practice for decades, is an over-reach.
Is "they" or "him/her" a better way forward? Sure. Is it standard practice? No. Can you infer anything about the author's attitudes by his use of standard English grammar? No.
This bothers me as well. Using "he" generically is accepted use of the English language so one could be forgiven for continuing to use it. By using "she" you are going out of you way to choose a gender, when you could easily use a gender-neutral pronoun.
what was true centuries ago is no longer true. "he" is not gender neutral in English, in any sense of the term. it's only used as such in historical writing - languages evolve over time. "she" connotes as much knowledge as "he".
Interesting how you focused on "he/him/his" when I said "He/She" and "his/hers", noting that either gender based term can be used in a gender neutral manner, but that "traditionally the masculine form is used". My point was to indicate that it is common enough that insult should not have been taken to the original post.
I certainly never said anything about "The One Correct English Way".
As for the condescension; yes that was intended. The response was overly hostile and out of line so the condescension was deserved IMHO. Don't worry yourself though Mike; I spread around the condescension equally to all genders.
You are using "he" and "his" but the author is female, which has absolutely nothing to do with any of the points raised. Just pointing out an oversight.
"Moreover, anyone who has sampled Chinese, or Persian, or Finnish, knows that a language can get along just fine with the same word for “he” and “she.”"
English (at least in en_GB) can coerce they into a gender neutral form of he or she. Sometimes it will need a bit of sentence re-arrangement and other tricks but will still be natural.
I was chatting to my aunt and they said: "Ooh, you are awful." My dad looked at me and said "crack on". In the first sentence they is substituted directly for she and in the second sentence he is dropped entirely from: "and he said".
I'm sure other languages have similar tricks. In this case I don't think it is even breaking the rules.
> Why else would you "default" to "he" instead of "she"? Because you assume the author to be a man.
I can say both from experience and personal perspective that, especially in America, it is a cultural norm to use "he" as a gender-neutral, non-normative pronoun. "They" sounds both awkward and invalid since it is taught as a plural pronoun.
I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, and this is the way I and everyone around me spoke. We never used "he" exclusively as a male pronoun, especially when gender was indeterminate. Some people would correct themselves by saying, "He ... or she..." I myself have spent years training myself to use "they" instead of "he," and I still catch myself using "he" when I clearly mean to use a gender-neutral pronoun.
Please do not put words in people's mouths and assume that when we use "he" it means we think it's a man. Our subculture is different from your own. Our upbringing is different from yours. It is a fallacy to assume otherwise.
It also take just as little effort to ignore this usage. I understand why you would say that, but what someone writes is their own - they might feel differently. Besides, "he" (or now, just as appropriately "she") is very common when referring to an unknown in English. Anyone reading should understand that there is usually no intent to exclude and that it's merely a side effect of the language.
> Well, the Greek version says she-teacher and it translates to French he-teacher. Def a big mistake.
I have Mandarin speaking friends (graduates of US universities), for whom English is a second language. They often use "she" instead of "he" (or vice versa) when referring to others.
If humans, who have been using English for 7-8 years, can't get this right, then I wouldn't call it a "big mistake". It is a mistake, for sure; but it's not the end of the world.
Sorry, why do you care? Why does it matter? "He/she" is simply unwieldy in writing text meant to be read by other people. Pick whatever pronoun you want to use. It. Does. Not. Matter. What I don't understand is complaining about how somebody else is not using your preferred generic pronoun.
I'm not going to spoon-feed you in a vain attempt to get a seat at the table for a discussion you clearly don't want to have.
Please investigate unconscious bias for yourself.
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