The pronoun in the English language for a person of indeterminate gender is “he”.
Or singular they.
Yes, it’s spelled the same way as the pronoun for a person of specifically male gender; it’s far from the only case of different words being spelled the same way.
Claiming that they are different words that just happen to be spelled the same is disingenuous when they deflect the same. It’s the same word with two different meanings / usages.
Language is convention, and conventions can be changed. Yes, usage following the existing convention need not be sexist even when that convention itself is somewhat sexist, it may be merely conservative. But I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect people not to be even so much as slightly annoyed when when you follow the sexist convention. And the fact that people on this site are regularly provoking this slight annoyance rather than make the effort to rephrase or accept the minor aesthetic displeasure of using a non-standard pronoun also speaks for itself.
I don’t particularly object to singular “they”; while not strictly grammatical, it at least lacks the obnoxious clumsiness of “he or she”.
But as for whether the correct usage is sexist: Do you think a significant number of people here actually regard one sex as inherently inferior to the other and signal that view by their choice of pronoun?
If you do, well, I think you are mistaken, but I can see how someone who holds that belief on the fact of the matter could reasonably hold your view on the language issue.
But if not, then you are effectively claiming that the primary purpose of language is to be perverted into a weapon in political power struggles. If that is the case, then suffice it to say we have resolved our disagreement down to a difference of moral axioms.
I explicitly said that usage need not be sexist (the convention itself is to a degree), just that it’s understandably annoying.
Do you think a significant number of people here actually regard one sex as inherently inferior to the other and signal that view by their choice of pronoun?
No, but they may, well, not exactly forget that female people exist, but something to me inexplicable happens that makes it look like they do forget that. I can remember only one specific example that led to a flame war, but then I’m male and it doesn’t annoy me anywhere near as much.
And that’s not even the issue. One time I was debating something with another poster here and started talking about an unspecified psychologist. I intentionally didn’t use any gendered pronouns at first, but in the reply the other poster started using male pronouns for the psychologist so I made a point of using female ones in my reply, and subsequently both of us used them for the rest of the debate without either of us commenting on it explicitly. I don’t think the other poster was sexist, let alone intentionally sexist, but once the male pronouns were used I simply found it impossible to think of my psychologist as an ungendered generic psychologist and I found both that and the fact that the psychologist should deterministically end up as male in my imagination just because of an artifact of language highly annoying. If anything I imagine that these and similar things annoy the female posters here a lot more than me.
But if not, then you are effectively claiming that the primary purpose of language is to be perverted into a weapon in political power struggles.
Languages primary purpose is communication, obviously. It undeniably also is a weapon in political power struggles and it should not be. I don’t see how using the male third person singular pronoun as indeterminate gender third person singular pronoun either helps communication (as far as I can tell it obstructs slightly) or is power struggle neutral.
Or singular they.
Claiming that they are different words that just happen to be spelled the same is disingenuous when they deflect the same. It’s the same word with two different meanings / usages.
Language is convention, and conventions can be changed. Yes, usage following the existing convention need not be sexist even when that convention itself is somewhat sexist, it may be merely conservative. But I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect people not to be even so much as slightly annoyed when when you follow the sexist convention. And the fact that people on this site are regularly provoking this slight annoyance rather than make the effort to rephrase or accept the minor aesthetic displeasure of using a non-standard pronoun also speaks for itself.
I don’t particularly object to singular “they”; while not strictly grammatical, it at least lacks the obnoxious clumsiness of “he or she”.
But as for whether the correct usage is sexist: Do you think a significant number of people here actually regard one sex as inherently inferior to the other and signal that view by their choice of pronoun?
If you do, well, I think you are mistaken, but I can see how someone who holds that belief on the fact of the matter could reasonably hold your view on the language issue.
But if not, then you are effectively claiming that the primary purpose of language is to be perverted into a weapon in political power struggles. If that is the case, then suffice it to say we have resolved our disagreement down to a difference of moral axioms.
I explicitly said that usage need not be sexist (the convention itself is to a degree), just that it’s understandably annoying.
No, but they may, well, not exactly forget that female people exist, but something to me inexplicable happens that makes it look like they do forget that. I can remember only one specific example that led to a flame war, but then I’m male and it doesn’t annoy me anywhere near as much.
And that’s not even the issue. One time I was debating something with another poster here and started talking about an unspecified psychologist. I intentionally didn’t use any gendered pronouns at first, but in the reply the other poster started using male pronouns for the psychologist so I made a point of using female ones in my reply, and subsequently both of us used them for the rest of the debate without either of us commenting on it explicitly. I don’t think the other poster was sexist, let alone intentionally sexist, but once the male pronouns were used I simply found it impossible to think of my psychologist as an ungendered generic psychologist and I found both that and the fact that the psychologist should deterministically end up as male in my imagination just because of an artifact of language highly annoying. If anything I imagine that these and similar things annoy the female posters here a lot more than me.
Languages primary purpose is communication, obviously. It undeniably also is a weapon in political power struggles and it should not be. I don’t see how using the male third person singular pronoun as indeterminate gender third person singular pronoun either helps communication (as far as I can tell it obstructs slightly) or is power struggle neutral.