gender bias in language

[James Perkins <perkins -at- TELE -dot- NOKIA -dot- FI>]

Continuing the story...

One of the best parts of the Finnish language is that there is no "he" or
"she"...only a single word, "han" (the "a" should have umlauts on top) to
denote both.  Many Finns believe that this is why society in Finland is,
in general, much more egalitarian than in the average western country.

I agree that English would also benefit from a non-biased personal pronoun,
but I cringe from the word "they".  This word is a plural.  We need a singular
non-biased pronoun.  Just because it is in common usage does not mean it
is correct.  There are plenty of expressions in common usage that use
appalling grammar.

One of my university professors always used "she" instead of "he" in all
of HIS writing.  He explained at the beginning of his books and documents
that this was his convention.  It seemed quite inoffensive: women were
happy to see the change to "she", especially from a man, and the biased
men thought it was just a personal idiosyncracy of the writer.  I adopted
this convention when writing for students at a university in Australia and
also found it well-appreciated.

Harking back to the Finns, in common parlance, they sometimes use "se"
instead of "han".  "Se" literally means "it"...a hint for English? :-)


James Perkins                           Phone:  +358 0 5112 3648
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