gender-neutral pronouns as epic fails

[Jonathan Lighter]

But don't you see, Wilson, Don't you *see*?  Traditional Japanese sexism
springs straight from the fact that they have no pronoun distinguishing
women from inanimate objects!  It makes you treat them the same, whether you
want to or not!

O tempura! O morays!

JL

On Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 12:27 AM, 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: gender-neutral pronouns as epic fails
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Mon, Aug 2, 2010 at 2:57 AM, Dan Goodman <dsgood at iphouse.com> wrote:
> > "That person."
>
> A calque on the Japanese?
>
> For those totally unfamiliar with that language, in general, it has no
> means of disinguishing among _he she it_. As a consequence, the
> culture of Japan is a shining beacon to the world WRT equality of the
> sexes, clearly demonstrating the innate truth of the Whorf/Sapir
> hypothesis.
>
> -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
>
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