cetacean sexism

[Jonathan Lighter]

A viewing of John Huston's vastly underrated film of _Moby Dick_ (1956)
raises the question of why whales should be generically female.  Even when
it's pretty sure to be Moby, the lookout cries "There she blows!"

I don't know what they say in Japanese or Norwegian (probably something like
"I have a sonar contact"), but this familiar English usage seems not to have
been commented on.

JL

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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