Post by folkie on Nov 21, 2005 3:10:04 GMT -5
tombldr said:
.......he was promoting an unrelated sub-agenda of gender neutral pronouns. I think he was proposing "sme" and "smer" or some such. He proposed just using them in your everyday life, in writing etc, and the dictionarys would catch up and define it, behind the curve, just like any new word that comes into usage. I thought it was a good idea.In theory, perhaps, but in practice it isn't. In practice it would only be used to refer to females. Several such supposedly "gender neutral" pronouns have been proposed over the years, and the sole purpose is to prevent the traditionally-inclusive pronouns from ever being used in a truly inclusive way.
With pronouns, just like with anything else, the default or generic belongs to everyone, not just to some. The fact that certain groups have arrogated some default or generic forms to themselves alone, doesn't mean they legitimately own them.