Fear of "His"

[Jonathan Lighter]

It's sooooooo clever. Watch the improvement they make in human lives.

JL

On Wed, Dec 8, 2010 at 10:31 AM, Federico Escobar <
federicoescobarcordoba at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Federico Escobar <federicoescobarcordoba at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Fear of "His"
>
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>
> Along the same lines comes this, which is in all likelihood not drinking
> from the well of postmodernism, but shows how much that well has spilled
> over; it's probably the most sinuous way I've seen of boarding the pronoun
> problem:
>
> "In every other chapter, we will alternate between the masculine and
> feminine pronouns and adjectives when describing humans. In every other
> chapter, we will do the same when describing dogs. Therefore, in one
> chapter
> 'he' will describe a dog and 'she' will describe a human. Then we'll switch
> off, and so on" (Cesar Millan and Melissa Jo Peltier, "Cesar's Way". New
> York: Three Rivers Press [2006], p. 7).
>
> The authors say explicitly that with this they seek to fight sexism; it's a
> good goal, certainly. The way of going about it is what struck me as
> convoluted. The ADS archives don't show it's been discussed before.
>
> "Cesar's Way" sold over a million books, by the way, so you can imagine the
> ripple effect.
>
> F.
>
>
> On Wed, Dec 8, 2010 at 10:52 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
> >wrote:
>
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Fear of "His"
> >
> >
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> >
> > Scottish artist Susan Philipsz [sic] has won the Tate Prize for a "sound
> > installation" that allows you to hear her singing a nineteenth-century
> sea
> > shanty.  Philipsz explains:
> >
> > "The song is about a sailor who appears in a dream to their loved one."
> >
> > As has been mentioned here before (I think), even when "his" refers
> > unmistakably and exclusively to a man, it's terribly naughty.
> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSiJpWRGqRc&feature=player_embedded.
> >
> > Meanwhile, from the past, a note by the psychologist Erich Fromm to
> preface
> > his _Anatomy of Human Destructiveness_ (N.Y.: Holt, 1973), p. xvi:
> >
> > "I have also, in general, used the word 'he' when I referred to human
> > beings, because to say 'he or she' each time would be awkward; I believe
> > words are very important, but also that one should not make a fetish of
> > them
> > and become more interested in the words than in the thought they
> express."
> >
> > Unanalyzed power relations kept the the naive, prepomo Fromm was from
> > understanding that the thought isn't what the speaker apparently thinks
> he
> > thinks, it's what the critic thinks the speaker must really be thinking
> > based on the language that speaks our sick society.
> >
> > But enough pronominal fetishizing from me. My resistance to pomo theory
> > only
> > proves my own sickness.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
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> >
>
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"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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