"gender neutral pronouns"

[Olga Meerson]

Robertjan, you are in your right! Russia is definitely feminine, esp. when we talk about Pushkin as her historian! (Cf. Tiutchev's address to Pushkin, "Tebia zh, kak pervuiu liubov', Rossii serdce ne zabudet"). It is like being a historian to the Queen. Your pronoun is definitely charged--not so much with any gender-related statement as with an urge to personify Russia, which is fine by me. In Russian, of course "pervyj ee istorik" would sound much less charged with any such deliberately personifying notion, but so would any possessive pronoun.  "U nee" (pervyj istorik u nee) would personify Russia but alas, in a much less palatable way than the English does with "her historian". 
o 

----- Original Message -----
From: Robert Chandler <kcf19 at DIAL.PIPEX.COM>
Date: Thursday, September 4, 2008 10:10 am
Subject: [SEELANGS] "gender neutral pronouns"

> Dear all,
> 
> I¹m curious to know how people react to the following sentence:
> ³Pushkin was both Russia¹s greatest poet and its first great 
> historian.²
> It is by me, as changed, against my wishes, by one of my editors.  
> To my
> ear, it grates horribly.  I would prefer ?her first great historian¹.
> Apparently ³house style¹ favours ³gender-neutral pronouns².
> 
> Am I being silly, sentimental, old-fashioned, sexist...?  Does 
> anyone else
> feel strongly, either way, about this?
> 
> Best Wishes,
> 
> Robert 
> 
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