Posted on 06/24/2007 2:29:33 PM PDT by rhema
AS THE AUTHOR of textbooks, I have posted bail quite a few times for the language police who inflict their sandbox rules upon our culture and mediocrity upon our literature. In my neophyte days, I employed the masculine pronoun in my texts, using only "he" and ˜him," in the anthropomorphic sense. People began jumping from windows, so I embraced pluralism. Every example had its participants and pronouns doubled. I used "theys,""thems," and even "yuns," whenever western Pennsylvania coal-mining roots overpowered the grammar hammer.
When my dedication to pluralism resulted in two CEOs running one company, I returned to singularism and mixed my "he's and "she's" together.
Users began counting the number of "he's" and "she's," checking for equal pronoun distribution. An editor vetoed my suggested dedication for the first gender equity edition: "AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY/AFFIRMATIVE ACTION TEXT. ALL PRONOUNS WELCOME." . . .
English cannot be modified all so easily, but let’s see how these modifiers do with Arabic. That will be entertaining.
Why, why, why can’t liberals just leave speech alone? The language is probably their most-favored tool...they think if they can control the language, they can ultimately control the world.
“Hu”, eh? I have seen “hir” in lieu of him or her, but only by moonbats over the internet. Same for “womyn”, another affectation.
Well, I’m in favor of using the plural. The Romance languages have gender neutral pronouns, it seems the only place they survive in English is in the plural. Besides, I don’t think it is so bad.
Hey no flaming if any of youse disagree with me!
Things were much easier (and more gramatically correct) back in the old days, when “he” was the universal pronoun, representing man, woman, and, for all I know, the rest of the animal kingdom. “Anyone,” “everyone,” “everybody” and “anybody” are all singular, so it’s grating to hear someone say: “If anyone is interested, THEY should call.” Or “Every parent should bring THEIR child to school.” Our society is getting dumb and dumber in the name of political correctness. I’m a woman, but I still use “he” as the universal pronoun.
They speak nonsense most of the day and fallacy the rest.
How about this, for “he, she, or it”: “h’rshit”, drop that a few times in conversation with one of these kooks and see what happens.
DeLuna says "hu" has been well-received within the transgender community.
Well, then, that's good enough for me. I think we should all embrace it.
"When hu opens hu's book, hu will read from it." That's kind of stupid.
???
Yes, the Romance languages have an “it”, even the sky has a “sex” in any of them.
Didn’t Don Imus get in a lot of trouble for using a gender-neutral pronoun? Didn’t he refer to some Palasaides Princesses as “nappy-headed hus”?
If the idea were simply to communicate, we would not be having this discussion. The whole point of "gender-neutrality" is to intimidate and indoctrinate, not to communicate.
AND:
DeLuna says "hu" has been well-received within the transgender community.
Well, then, that's good enough for me. I think we should all embrace it.
Excellent suggestion!
"'I always wanted to be the opposite sex', It said."
"Then It said, 'I never knew my father, and that is what made me a woman today'"
“If anyone is interested, THEY should call.” Or “Every parent should bring THEIR child to school.”
“If interested, please call.”
“All parents should bring their children to school.” Both are grammatically acceptable.
I agree as you do to use “he” as a general pronoun.
I've heard California linguistics professors complain about the white, middle-class hegemony our current grammar system wields over oppressed minorities. Maybe hu will set the captives free.
But in Hebrew, “hu” is “he” and “he” is “she” and, oh fuggetaboutit.
I've visited a few lefty listservs on occasion. The denizens of those sites would view your new pronoun as pretty tame, I'm guessing.
Glad to see you got your mind right, Luke. Rally 'round that rainbow flag.
I think I need to buy a vowel, Alex.
“He” as representative of both genders has been perfectly acceptable for a long time. I see no reason to change.
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