Tuesday, November 14, 2006

not on my reading list

Once you become convinced that using the generic "he" carries with it a connotation you cannot endorse, you will become far more adept at eliminating it from your own writing. Unless you mean to imply that women exist in the business world as atypical accidents, you do all women, the organization you work for, and yourself a disservice by persisting in the use of an archaic, demeaning, and inaccurate convention.

-- Merriellyn Kett & Virginia Underwood, How to Avoid Sexism 79 (1978).

I guess this explains why I still use "he."

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