Man on!

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>A few years ago, my daughter was playing on the Ball State Women's Soccer
>team.  This group of young college-age women, gender-sensitive all,
>regularly used a soccer term as a warning when the player handling the
>ball was about to be attacked by an opposing player.  The practice is to
>yell "Man on!" to the ball handler.  No one seemed bothered by this.  My
>guess is that the cry has to be short, loud, and clear, and that the game
>situation has precedence of gender-sensitivity.  Any thoughts on this?

Gender-sensitive is fine but -- as we see -- a healthy person who gets
enough exercise usually does not become gender-fanatical. (^_^)

I suppose that fixed expressions such as "Man overboard" or "Man the
lifeboats" or even "Man, oh, man" are relatively immune.

-- Doug Wilson