I've noticed a rather annoying trend as of late. Everyone knows that it's been a problem that some people tend to use "him" or "he" instead of "him/her" and "he/she". But lately, I've seen a fair amount of people using 'her" and "she" when trying to convey a generalized pronoun.

not all government failures are of the administrative kind, and the president herself is not the sole carrier of this administrative ability.

Seriously, it's annoying. Why couldn't this person have said "themself"? I've seen this kind of garbage everywhere lately. In general, though, I think the english language has a serious problem in this regard... generalized pronouns don't apply in all situations. Why haven't new words been invented to alleviate this problem? How about "hh"?

LeperKahn

Romania1838 Posts

September 02 2008 03:02 GMT

"Themself" isn't a word, and "them" is plural.

ahrara_

Afghanistan1715 Posts

September 02 2008 03:03 GMT

lol i didnt even notice that when he posted.

i agree that language influences how we see the world, but i'm annoyed by people who take that idea too seriously.

micronesia

United States24676 Posts

September 02 2008 03:06 GMT

A word was invented to solve this problem but nobody uses it. Male is the default gender, as this is the problem with our society (well, one of them)

OneOther

United States10774 Posts

September 02 2008 03:07 GMT

male default YA

Rotodyne

United States2263 Posts

September 02 2008 03:11 GMT

what OneOther said, it's not garbage it's the rule :D

ieatkids5

United States4628 Posts

September 02 2008 03:18 GMT

english needs gender-neutral pronouns
he/him/his
she/her/her
ve/ver/vis?

imBLIND

United States2626 Posts

September 02 2008 03:24 GMT

a lot of languages need gender-neutral pronouns...its messy in romance and english

NrG.Bamboo

United States2756 Posts

September 02 2008 03:24 GMT

Male gender seems to be the "default", except when it comes to things like someone's car, or any other object someone finds really important.

"she's a fuckin beauty, eh?"

fonger

United Kingdom1218 Posts

September 02 2008 03:26 GMT

#10

you guys need to start thinking outside the box

if we eradicate women, this will cease to be an issue

raiame

United States421 Posts

September 02 2008 03:41 GMT

#11

On September 02 2008 12:18 ieatkids5 wrote:
english needs gender-neutral pronouns
he/him/his
she/her/her
ve/ver/vis?

it/it/its

fanatacist

10319 Posts

September 02 2008 03:43 GMT

#12

On September 02 2008 12:26 fonger wrote:
you guys need to start thinking outside the box

if we eradicate women, this will cease to be an issue

Faggot.

The real solution is to remove them from politics and anything of importance, and refer to them as "it"s.

d34gl3r

Korea (South)92 Posts

September 02 2008 03:44 GMT

#13

yeah uh
you can use ve/ver/vis
the rest of us will use it/it/its

ignorance is bliss

Astrogation

United States477 Posts

September 02 2008 04:06 GMT

#14

On September 02 2008 12:24 Valentine wrote:
Male gender seems to be the "default", except when it comes to things like someone's car, or any other object someone finds really important.

"she's a fuckin beauty, eh?"

That's because it'd be pretty gay if they said "he's a fuckin beauty, eh?"

Deleted User 3420

24492 Posts

September 02 2008 04:12 GMT

#15

it's the queens english

welcome to the 16th century

oh wait..

Snet

United States3573 Posts

September 02 2008 04:15 GMT

#16

how the hell could this bother you? get over it

Hittegods

Stockholm4640 Posts

September 02 2008 04:52 GMT

#17

Not as retarded as the use of "firewoman" or "policewoman" and such.

BottleAbuser

Korea (South)1888 Posts

September 02 2008 04:59 GMT

#18

This is irritating because such usage is somehow considered politically correct whereas using the male pronoun for a general person is considered politically incorrect.

I don't like grammatically incorrect alternatives such as plural pronouns, and I think females would much prefer to be referred to as "he" than "it" as they know we are superior anyways.

Chef

10810 Posts

September 02 2008 05:05 GMT

#19

I think "he/she" is a stupid thing to say. It makes me think of a transsexual. Correct format is "he or she."

"Not as retarded as the use of "firewoman" or "policewoman" and such."

What's wrong with that if you're talking about a woman? I mean, firewoman sounds awkward, because Fire Fighter works just as well. Firemen and woman sounds good too. Policewoman doesn't sound awkward at all to me.

I don't know. It doesn't really bother me except when someone goes overboard and sacrifices the quality of their speech by being super politically correct. Saying policewoman is important though, because it recognizes a change in society where before they weren't even allowed on the force, now they deserve a credit to their efforts to a more equal society. I mean, imagine you've got a graduation ceremony of mostly women at the academy, and you start only saying policemen... It's just weird. Are they somehow men at heart because they do a man's job? Or is it something you don't lose your gender while working?

EDIT: Actually... Just say police officers...