Collin wrote: >Back up the turnip wagon there, Glenn. Change never occurs in a vacuum, on its own, without external stimuli. You very admirably went half way with the point that there was a requisite for an additional application. (That's a lot further than many are willing or able to take the discussion.)
>But to say that there is not a motivation behind the stimuli falls short of describing the complete situation. This is a socio/political matter, both in objective and movitation. As a woman, on forms I prefer gender. Because technically it is more accurate -- referring to what genitalia I was born with rather than one's sexual practices. And it avoids all those stupid juvenile jokes. It is also part of the language changing that has gone over the last umpteen years to make things less male oriented, which frankly was a big pain and semi-insulting. Like fireman, mailman, policeman, weatherman, etc., etc., etc. I grew up in the 50's and 60's when 90% of mysteries and science-fiction were written by men and most of the protagonists were male. It becomes a very disassociating experience when you read and see only 1/2 of the world consistently reflected in language and that half is not YOUR half. It literally makes you feel weird, unrepresented, and somehow not important or less-than. And it makes it very hard to identify with what you read. I am very glad things have changed. Extremely glad. For women and anyone else that was once left out of the big linguistic picture. Marnie aka Doe
