Re: personrem/personSievert

[William V Lipton <liptonw@dteenergy.com>]

I am appalled by those whose "pronoun envy" makes them see gender bias where
none exists.  Perhaps the following paragraph, from "A Handbook for
Scholars," by Mary-Clair van Leunen (NY, Alfred A. Knopf 1978) will be of
some comfort:

(pages 4-5):  "My expository style relies heavily on the exemplary singular,
and the construction 'everybody ... his' therefore comes up frequently.
This 'his' is generic, not gendered.  'His or her' becomes clumsy with
repetition and suggests that 'his' alone elsewhere is masculine, which it
isn't. 'Her' alone draws attention to itself and distracts from the topic at
hand.  'Their' solves the problem neatly but substitutes another.  'Ter' is
bolder than I am ready for.  'One's' defeats the purpose of the
construction, which is meant to be vivid and particular. 'Its' is too harsh
a joke.  Rather than plan hob with the language, we feminists might adopt
the position of pitying men for being forced to share their pronouns
around."

The opinions expressed are strictly mine.
It's not about dose, it's about trust.

Bill Lipton
liptonw@dteenergy.com


Bjorn Cedervall wrote:

> Maybe there should be three kinds of units:
> person-, man-, woman-
> The relative risks differ at a given age (see
> the Gompertz curves in ICRP 60).
> Just a personal (man-?) comment... :-)
> Bjorn Cedervall   bcradsafers@hotmail.com
>
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