Saturday, July 14, 2007

she, he, she-he's...it's all good!

First, I'm not sure if this is the proper way to respond to your blog. Making a new 'blog' about it?

Anyway, in not so formal terms and certainly not researched, 'they' is totally confusing. Let's take it from the perspective of a non-native speaker. Non-natives can already find difficulty in vocabulary ("Would you pass the k-niff?"), why extend the confusion to grammar? By improperly using pro-nouns, the invitation is out for major miscommunication. "Oh, there was only one person coming to my party? But I was assured that they were coming." Hmm, maybe a poor example, but you catch my drift?

In addition, I dig the 'she or he' or as some people prefer 'he or she' steez. It clarifies that someone like a computer programmer could well be a female or male, and hey, if there's a word limit on a term-paper, the rule throws in at least 4 more words. The professor would be expected to appreciate the consideration that the student took to be sensitive to constructed gender roles in our society. Besides, they went to school, they should know what's up with it. ;o)

1 comment:

yupi said...

I get the point on using "improper" grammar, but do you not see it as an issue that as native english speakers we are limited to thinking about things in a male/female dichotomy. I think there are times were it would be helpful to refer to a person without having to imply their gender. I think having these gender limitations in our language helps reinforce gender roles.
I know some feminists have tried to suggest a new pronoun such as 'xe'. It can be hard to artifiicially inject something into a language, but I wonder if it would be better for sex equality if we had less gender role implications in our speak.