actually, I think we're WINNING.

[lotesse]

So I was sure when I got a snotty email in my inbox, sent from one of my professors to the entire class, banging on about the use of "they" as a generic pronoun rather than "he," and calling the entire thing a grammatical error - the best part was when he lamented that soon the war would be "lost," and we wouldn't be able to enforce patriarchy on our own students - that if I was not the main target I was at least included. I'm the most vocal feminist in the class, certainly. And so I was sure that I'd be marked down, and I was sort of bracing myself to write letters and possibly contest the grade if that bit of sexist pedantry was my only sin - and then I opened my grades, and the bastard gave me an A. He never gives As! Sir, I'm confused.

Comments

[msilverstar]

Yay for you for standing up for yourself and non-sexist usage!

I remember the day I decided that I'd never write another tech doc with the word "he" for "the user" -- it was quite a feeling of liberation.

Using they for generic pronoun is one thing that makes me fond of English, I think I'd be a seething mass of resentment in a gendered language.