🚀 go-pugleaf

Dave Hare <deghare@lady.waterloo.edu> writes:
DH> Linda Carson recently posted an exposition on the effects and costs of 
DH> sexual stereotyping in language.  It was very clear and well stated, 
DH> and concluded with:

LC> It takes an effort to strip sexual stereotyping from language. But it's
LC> not rocket science, folks. It's important, and it's worth the effort.

DH> This, I submit, is the major problem that women face in trying to attain
DH> equality:  Men insist on being the arbiters of what is important to women.

All right, so maybe Brad can't decide, nor can Naji, nor me.  But does Linda
represent all women?  Do we know how most women feel about this issue?  Has
anyone ever done any surveys with any sort of statistical validity?

DH> The simple fact is that in order to be sensitive
DH> to the issues of a group to which you do not belong, you must be willing
DH> to accept that group's designation of which issues are important.  To do
DH> otherwise is to be satisfied with tokenism.  The four respondents I have
DH> quoted above are all guilty of this.

Again, this is assuming that Linda is speaking for all women.  I don't know
whether she is or not --- do you?

DH> Linda pointed out the reality of the "best guess" argument: it is self-
DH> fulfilling prophecy.  Use "he" when discussing doctors to a grade school
DH> class, and "she" when discussing nurses, and the message is unmistakable.
DH> So the answer to your question is a resounding: Yes, it is evil.

"Evil"?  Oh, come now.  "Bad", yes, if it promotes stereotyping.  "Evil"
means something a bit more, including intent to harm.

> As a final point, consider the following:  The reason the issue we are
> discussing is called that of "inclusive language" is because to more than
> 50% of the poulation of the earth, the status quo is exclusive.

Say, how do you figure "over 50%"?  Just because English has separate 3rd
person pronouns for the two genders, doesn't mean every language does.  For
example, Finnish has no concept of gender built into the language at all.  Of
course, it's not one of the more popular languages in the world...  :)

[ \tom haapanen --- university of waterloo --- tom@mims-iris.waterloo.edu ]
[ "i don't even know what street canada is on"               -- al capone ]