(a) blond(e)

[Laurence Horn]

At 7:44 AM -0800 11/6/06, Jonathan Lighter wrote [re _blond_/_blonde_]:
>That's the distinction I was taught in Junior High.
>
>   Since then it has been condemned as sexist to use the "e" form for
>women, though it could be interpreted as ignorant and linguistically
>insensitive not to. Like saying "NeanderTHal."

I think the more frequent complaint is the standard use of the
nominal "a blonde", given the role of nouns as
categorizers/pigeon-holers (cf. Bolinger, Wierzbicka, and our
discussion of this tendency buried in the yellowing archives), the
claim that categorizing individuals in terms of appearance is
demeaning, and the fact that we're much more likely to do this with
women than men ("she's a blonde": 14,400 google hits/"he's a
blond(e)": 485).  Nor is this a fact about blond(e)s per se, as
sometimes argued:  cf. "she's a brunette" vs. "he's a brunet(te)".

LH

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