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The author wishes to state its annoyance
My latest pet peeve, brought on by my return to pursuits academical*, is the use of "she" as a neutral third-person personal pronoun. English doesn't have a neutral third-person personal pronoun! When I was an undergrad, we must have used "he" or "he or she" or "s/he" or some such nonsense. I assume. I never really paid much attention to it, because it didn't stand out to me until I got to U-M.
Now every time I hear about "the patron taking her time" or "the customer weighing her options" or "the user trimming her beard" the "her" jumps out and screams in my face that I, the author, wish to emphasize that women can be librarians, patrons of libraries, computer users, consumers, or whatever the hell they want to be, you chauvinistic pig! Now what was it this sentence was supposed to be about, anyway?
I don't consider myself a chauvinist pig, textbook. I'm just not insecure enough to think that pronouns are going to make a difference. I don't need pronouns to tell me what I can or can't do.
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* I like the phrase "pursuits academical"; it sounds rather Gilbertandsullivanian.
srah - Saturday, 11 September 2004 - 9:49 PM
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