[Ads-l] "man" avoidance

[Jonathan Lighter]

Not wrong logically but weird stylistically. Which is the problem.

The writer intentionally avoids writing "men" in the lead when, in this
case, men are obviously the focus of the story."Men and women" are also
easier to picture than "people." There's no good reason that I can think of
to avoid the more customary phrase. The bad reason, however, seems to be
the superstition that one should never specify anyone's sex unless
absolutely unavoidable.

And biological sex was indeed significant, since women were not permitted
to fly in combat, maintain aircraft, etc. "Masculinity" (or "maleness") in
the simple sense of being a male human adult was a requirement.

To write "311 people," followed immediately by a discussion of planes shot
down, suggests that a fair number of women were flying as combat pilots -
as they do today.

 "309 men and two women" is more specific and prevents that
misinterpretation; and whatever prevents misinterpretation is a necessary
thing.

JL



I

On Sat, Sep 24, 2016 at 11:16 AM, Flourish Klink <flourish.klink at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Why is it wrong or weird to say "people" if the fact that they were men is
> unimportant to the statement at hand? Certainly their masculinity is not
> what shot down the planes. If they were women, it would only be significant
> inasmuch as it was unusual for the time, so only worth mentioning if your
> point was to discuss sexism or similar. I don't see how this erases history
> at all.
>
> On Sat, Sep 24, 2016, 10:09 AM Marc Sacks <msacksg at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Last night, my wife referred to two of her students as "male-identified."
> > Oh, I innocently asked, were they trans, gay, genderfluid? No, she
> replied,
> > just male. She was reporting her discomfort after innocently referring to
> > them as "guys." I'm not sure how serious she was; I don't think she was
> > either.
> >
> > Marc Sacks
> >
> > On Fri, Sep 23, 2016 at 10:43 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > > -----------------------
> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> > > Subject:      Re: "man" avoidance
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > -------------------
> > >
> > > On Fri, Sep 23, 2016 at 9:51 PM, Benjamin Barrett <
> > mail.barretts at gmail.com
> > > >
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > =E2=80=9C311 mostly male people=E2=80=9D
> > >
> > >
> > > "311 men and women"?
> > >
> > >
> > > --=20
> > > -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
> > >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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