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Although I do not often use "he" generically, I feel duty bound to defend
those who do. Minorities who are declared to be acceptable targets
for discimination should be defended. Since men have been so declared,
I stand up for men. In the early years of feminism, I stood up for
women. But now that the feminist nomenklatura has taken over, they
have become the new oppressors. Here is my translation of part
of the AHD's politically correct usage note which you sent me:
>"... writers who ... use the masculine pronoun as generic in all cases ..
>must be prepared to incur the displeasure of readers who regard this
>pattern as a mark of insensitivity or gender discrimination, although
>there is no such penalty for using awkward but politically correct
>formulations. When a majority of writers have been intimidated into
>avoiding the masculine as generic, the writer who uses it in this way
>may invite the inference that there is some pointed reason for referring
>to the representative instance as male, so such a writer should be
>hounded into silence unless he can be whipped into submission.
In answer to my rhetorical question "Who sets the standard?" I must
answer "Not the American Heritage Dictionary, which belies its own name".
Live long & prosper,
Mike LaTorra
Documentation Supervisor
Accugraph Inc.
mikel -at- accugraph -dot- com
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The opinions expressed are my own, ][ "The superstitions of intellectuals
and not necessarily those of my ][ are still superstitions -- and they
company -- but they probably ][ have a lot of them. The real ques-
should be. ][ tion is why we keep listening to
][ them after their nostrums have
][ failed time and time again."
][ -- Thomas Sowell
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