I suppose every culture has its rules about this. As a completely off-topic side note, some years ago at a gig in New Jersey I was chatting after hours with a Hispanic cleaning lady, and I mentioned something I had done as a child. To indicate my approximate age as I said "child", I patted an imaginary child on the top of its head at about waist level.
She corrected me; in her culture, it is inappropriate to indicate children with the hand horizontal as if patting the top of its head. It took her a few tries to get this through to me, because my Spanish isn't that great (then or now), but eventually I understood: Animals you indicate that way, but human children you must indicate with the hand held vertically, that is, sideways, as if patting the child's cheek. I say "her culture", but I don't know whether this is Hispanic generally, or New-World Hispanic, or what. Since I was in New Jersey she ought to have been Puerto Rican, but in my hazy memory is the impression she was from Central America somewhere. --- Bob Bridges, [email protected], cell 336 382-7313 /* The Constitution is not neutral. It was designed to take the government off the backs of people. -Justice W O Douglas */ -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf Of CM Poncelet Sent: Thursday, June 9, 2022 19:37 "every child has their <whatever>" should be "every child has its <whatever>" - as "child" is animate but is also gender neuter (regardless of political correctness and woke culture.) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
