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Subject:Re[2]: [TECHWR-L] The Gender Issue (PC) From:Reinhard Jaehnig <jaehnig_reinhard_rej-d -at- BETASYSTEMS -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 19 Jan 1999 17:09:29 UT
> German has three genders, masculine (der), feminine (die), and
> neutral (das)... Gender isn't an issue in German, Spanish or any
> of the other foreign languages that have gender-specific words
> because the gender is part of the language and has nothing to do
> with issues of gender relations, sex, or political correctness.
The issue is not that words have (grammatical) gender.
Nobody will be upset by the masculine gender of the
word computer in constructions like: "Use your computer
to do this... Use HIM to do that ..."
The problem is that there is two forms for words like
"The user", namely "Benutzer/Anwender" (He-User) and
Benutzerin/Anwenderin (She-User).
Some people think that the word He-User is also the
generic term, which includes He-User and She-User.
Others think that it only refers to He-Users and
therefore discriminates against She-Users.
