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

[idleleaves]

*facedesk* Gah. I'm also an advocate of the singular 'they', not only because using things like 'he or she' or 's/he' is unnecessarily binary but because they're awkward constructions. Also awkward are the 'new' gender-neutral pronouns (zie, etc.) that I've been seeing around. Teachers and grammatically-inclined friends tell me again and again that this is 'wrong', but... well, screw that. If there were a better gender-neutral alternative, one that sounded smoother and wasn't awkward like the other choices, then I'd use that, but there really isn't, not in English.

And, even if your professor disagrees, there's no real reason to send e-mails to the entire class harping on about pronouns. Sheesh.