Re: Male/female/other

[Ralph Little]

Hi,
Funnily enough, I already commented on this sort of thing and I tend to
agree with Han-Wen on this.
I don't think that it is unfair to pick a suitable gender depending on
the situation.
And I quote from my previous email on the subject:

===================================================
The trouble is, determining a one-size-fits-all rule for this kind of
think can be too restrictive.
For example, when describing old professional music engravers, he/she
would be, almost without exception, male. Somebody correct me if I'm
wrong.
Referring to "her" would be inappropriate and silly.
===================================================

Further, if we were writing articles on child birth, I think that
phrases like "his cervix" rather make the "politically correct" strategy
silly. <snigger>

You're never going to please everybody all of the time, and to be quite
honest, contrary to what a lot of media commentators say on this
subject, I don't think many people take offence at this sort of thing
and if they do, they really should get a life...

Regards,
Ralph

> > I think that hand-engraving dates from the time that women did not
> > participate much in professional life
> 
> Indeed, so wouldn't using 'he' instead of 'she' here not be extra
> unkind to the [very few] women who were engravers?  I'm not sure there
> were none.
> 
> >, so I find this sentence rather awkward.
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