The probability that anyone would (non-jokingly) refer to me as “he” while knowing (or even strongly suspecting!) that I am in fact female is miniscule; the probability that I am female (even given locally appropriate priors) isn’t; and if I were male and known to be so, the probability that I’d be referred to as “he” would approach 1. Referring to someone as “he” constitutes Bayesian evidence to one’s audience that the referred-to individual is male. Be not thou casual with the Bayesian evidence.
That is evidence in favor of that usage of pronouns being undesirable for efficient communication of evidence. It doesn’t comment particularly on whether or not that particular usage has been traditionally accepted.
I’m not trying to argue with your objection to that kind of usage. I certainly don’t consider using ‘he’ by default any better than using ‘she’ by default. I think “AAAAAAAAAAUGH” is a valid response. It is just ironically more valid than ‘No’.
The probability that anyone would (non-jokingly) refer to me as “he” while knowing (or even strongly suspecting!) that I am in fact female is miniscule; the probability that I am female (even given locally appropriate priors) isn’t; and if I were male and known to be so, the probability that I’d be referred to as “he” would approach 1. Referring to someone as “he” constitutes Bayesian evidence to one’s audience that the referred-to individual is male. Be not thou casual with the Bayesian evidence.
That is evidence in favor of that usage of pronouns being undesirable for efficient communication of evidence. It doesn’t comment particularly on whether or not that particular usage has been traditionally accepted.
I’m not trying to argue with your objection to that kind of usage. I certainly don’t consider using ‘he’ by default any better than using ‘she’ by default. I think “AAAAAAAAAAUGH” is a valid response. It is just ironically more valid than ‘No’.