cetacean sexism

[Wilson Gray]

No doubt you missed the Ms. Magazine cartoon in which a woman pulls up
to a gas pump - this was back in the days when *full* service was
merely the ordinary standard of service - and says to the attendant:
"Fill 'im up!"

No later than '71, since I was at UC Davis, at the time,

-Wilson

On Mon, Jul 5, 2010 at 10:07 PM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      cetacean sexism
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> A viewing of John Huston's vastly underrated film of _Moby Dick_ (1956)
> raises the question of why whales should be generically female.  Even when
> it's pretty sure to be Moby, the lookout cries "There she blows!"
>
> I don't know what they say in Japanese or Norwegian (probably something like
> "I have a sonar contact"), but this familiar English usage seems not to have
> been commented on.
>
> JL
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
–Mark Twain

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org