It's not suitable to refer to a single person of either gender. On Sep 27, 2012, at 11:34 AM, Owen DeLong wrote: > When did "people" stop being an acceptable gender-neutral substitute for > {guys,gals}? > > Owen > > > Sent from my iPad > > On Sep 27, 2012, at 1:10 PM, Jo Rhett <jrh...@netconsonance.com> wrote: > >> On Sep 27, 2012, at 9:20 AM, Jim Mercer wrote: >>> On Thu, Sep 27, 2012 at 12:12:50PM -0400, Patrick W. Gilmore wrote: >>>> Many. Although in fairness, some people use "guys" in a gender-neutral >>>> manner. >>> >>> some people use it in a globally-neutral manner. >>> "those guys over there" pointing at a rack full of servers. >> >> >> Guys seem to think that it's gender neutral. The majority of women are used >> to this, but they have indicated to me that they don't believe it to be very >> neutral. Using "guys" is not gender neutral, it's flat out implying the >> other gender doesn't matter. * >> >> Given the lack of truly neutral terms in english, I have taken to >> alternative my pronouns interchangably when I write. >> "Those guys are chewing on that, but these gals are doing the vector >> calculations." (pointing at different racks of gear) >> >> Or when actually referring to persons of mixed gender, here's a quote from >> something I posted in a private forum (my own journal) which is safe for >> export: >> >>> Because frankly, we're all in this together and honestly everyone loves the >>> competition. The guys I race with often come find me afterwards and tell me >>> where they got past me, or ask me how I kept passing them. The really fast >>> girls rarely want more than a beer to go out on the track and give you a >>> detailed breakdown on what you are doing wrong. We all help each other. >> >> >> In this situation I'm leaving it up the reader to grasp that I'm not saying >> that the girls are all faster than the boys, but I believe it's understood >> in context as the topic was about how peers help each other out. >> >> I really wish that english had better pronouns for this. >> >> * As evidence of the nasty side effects of this, the bible was translated >> from a language which understands gender neutral terms to english, and was >> in translating reduced it to "man". Which is now used by >> only-english-speaking preachers to justify the "proper placement" of women >> in society. >> >> If for no other reason than that the use of a single gender pronoun confuses >> less intelligent types to assume that women aren't important in technology >> (and god knows this completely baseless assumption is widely held) do your >> part to mix it up! >> >> -- >> Jo Rhett >> Net Consonance : net philanthropy to improve open source and internet >> projects. >> >>
-- Jo Rhett Net Consonance : net philanthropy to improve open source and internet projects.