Bringing you awkward gibberish since 1973...

[oberstgreup]

The politically correct mania for "gender neutral" language is the bane of grace and clarity of expression with the written word. I'm sorry, but the English language makes frequent use of personal pronouns, there are no genderless (because, unless you're Buffalo Bill giving directions as to the proper use of skin lotion and the hazards of failing

Comments

[kat1031]

I just use they/their.

It really does matter. There's something really annoying about reading a want ad that tells me all about what "he" should do.

[oberstgreup]

"Their" doesn't work where it could create confusion as to whether it refers to one of two subjects or both of them. A singular pronoun is absoluetly necessary in such a situation - the only alternative is to repeat the antcedent over and over, but when the antecedent is something like "the collaterally liable defendant" that leads to a sentence that is all but unreadable.

I usually go for the inelegant but neutral and clear "he or she" and "his or her," but apparently this, like the alternating genders, is frowned on in some circles.

Really, it's not that I object to not using masculine pronouns - I'd much rather use all feminine forms than try to write around ridiculous rules, but that isn't allowed either. All I'm asking is that if a useful long-standing convention is to be tossed aside, it should be replaced by a new rule that makes sense rather than trying to shoehorn in formulae that are for perfectly rational and objective reasons impractical. As Winston said, "That is the sort of nonsense up with which we will not put!"

[kat1031]

Fair enough, but in your example, wouldn't he or she also cause the same confusion in terms of which subject it's referring to?

Other than that, how are you? Haven't heard from you in a bit. *poke*

[oberstgreup]

Generally not - if you say "When one collaterally liable defendant does X and the other doesn't, his answer must..." it's pretty clear "his" means the first and not the second, while "their" appears to refer to a joint answer by both. Using "the answer" is slightly better but still more than a bit ambiguous. What you're left with is saying "that defendant's" and "the other defendant's," but then we're back to awful sentences.

I've been buried in work. It's not really the volume of work at this point, I'm just in a bad place mentally, which makes me want to bury my head in the sand and pretend nothing and no one else exists.

[oddlystrange]

Formally, you're supposed to use "he or she" in the cases where you cannot determine a gender or using a gender would be construed as offensive.

For the most part nearly everything I read either alternates regularly, or will stick with "he."

[oberstgreup]

Yeah, I have no problem with "he or she" in most cases, but some people won't allow it, and alas, I'm often at the mercy of the stylistic whims of the government officials and authors I work with.

The problem isn't the basic idea, it's how pissy a lot of people get over exactly how it should (and shouldn't) be done. That's the pickle I'm in now; the authors and the department have conflicting ideas. I'd be happy to go with Jennie K.'s "sie" and "hir" if anyone would put up with it. (And like "Ms.," which spawned tempests in many a teapot when it was introduced, in a decade or two people would forget what all the fuss was about.)

[oddlystrange]

Can't you just throw a copy of Stunk & White at them and make them STFU?

[oberstgreup]

I'd have to have a pretty good arm, they're in Nashville. And most of my authors are lawyers; I'd just get sued.