she as a gender-neutral pronoun

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Mon Jan 3 02:53:24 UTC 2011


Sounds as though Dawkins doesn't think they're sexist at all, but his
publishers do.
JL
On Sun, Jan 2, 2011 at 9:30 PM, Federico Escobar <
federicoescobarcordoba at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Federico Escobar <federicoescobarcordoba at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: she as a gender-neutral pronoun
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I think this gender-neutral "she" is everywhere by now.
>
> For instance, in books on entrepreneurship and management:
> "Nobody ever reached her potential by scattering herself in twenty
> directions" (John C. Maxwell, *Success 101: What Every Leader Needs to
> Know*[2008], p. 9).
>
> And this note from the second edition of Richard Dawkins's *The Selfish
> Gene
> * is telling:
> "the original text should stand, sexist pronouns and all" (p. xvii).
> Dawkins
> is commenting on the pronouns he used in the first edition ("he", "him"),
> which he chose to leave unbruised for the second edition.
>
> F.
>
>
> On Sun, Jan 2, 2011 at 12:31 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
> >wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: she as a gender-neutral pronoun
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > >to use the convention that the arbitrary speaker is she" and the
> arbitrary
> > hearer "he".
> > My watchdog group bets you use the word "yakking" too! Shame!
> > JL
> >
> > On Sun, Jan 2, 2011 at 10:13 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu
> > >wrote:
> >
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > > -----------------------
> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> > > Subject:      Re: she as a gender-neutral pronoun
> > >
> > >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > At 9:07 AM -0500 1/2/11, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > > >I've seen this many times in lit-crit prose over the past, say,
> fifteen
> > > >years, chiefly in the works of female writers, who, it may be assumed,
> > > find
> > > >"she" the more "natural" pronoun.
> > > >
> > > >Male writers also use it, and I've seen it alternated with "he," more
> or
> > > >less at random, though in different sentences. That seems to be quite
> > > >common.
> > > >
> > > >JL
> > >
> > > It could also be that when it's alternated we don't notice the
> > > gender-neutral "he" and just register the gender-neutral "she".  As
> > > far as disciplines go, there's been a tendency over the last couple
> > > of decades in much linguistic semantics/pragmatics and philosophy of
> > > language work to use the convention that the arbitrary speaker is
> > > "she" and the arbitrary hearer "he".
> > >
> > > LH
> > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >On Sun, Jan 2, 2011 at 6:31 AM, Michael Newman
> > > ><michael.newman at qc.cuny.edu>wrote:
> > > >
> > > >>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > > >>  -----------------------
> > > >>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > >>  Poster:       Michael Newman <michael.newman at QC.CUNY.EDU>
> > > >>  Subject:      Re: she as a gender-neutral pronoun
> > > >>
> > > >>
> > >
> > >
> >
> >>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > > >>
> > > >>  I think somewhere I called that use of she "the affirmative action
> =
> > > >>  pronoun." I think some people didn't think that was very funny.
> > > >>
> > > >>  There are legitimate semantic reasons to prefer a singular pronoun
> in
> > =
> > > >>  some contexts where the sex of the referent is logically
> > sex-indefiite,
> > > =
> > > >>  in particular to create a more personal rhetorical effect. You can
> =
> > > >>  better imagine a personification of "a solitary reader" "the
> critic"
> > =
> > > >>  etc. with a singular pronoun than with they However, in these
> cases,
> > > the =
> > > >>  writers are simply trying to not violate a ridiculous prescriptive
> > > rule. =
> > > >>  In doing so, they lose the ability to modulate between more generic
> > and
> > > =
> > > >>  more individual interpretations.  Hopefully, that norm will go the
> > way
> > > =
> > > >>  of the prohibition against sentential hopefully.=20
> > > >>
> > > >>
> > > >>
> > > >>
> > > >>  Michael Newman
> > > >>  Associate Professor of Linguistics
> > > >>  Queens College/CUNY
> > > >>  michael.newman at qc.cuny.edu
> > > >>
> > > >>
> > > >>
> > > >>  On Jan 2, 2011, at 4:07 AM, Paul Frank wrote:
> > > >>
> > > >>  > ---------------------- Information from the mail header =
> > > >>  -----------------------
> > > >>  > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > >>  > Poster:       Paul Frank <paulfrank at POST.HARVARD.EDU>
> > > >>  > Subject:      she as a gender-neutral pronoun
> > > >>  > =
> > > >>
> > >
> >
>  --------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> > > >>  -----
> > > >>  >=20
> > > >>  > Several years ago, I started noticing the use in academic prose
> of
> > > >>  > "she" as a gender-neutral pronoun to avoid the supposedly sexist
> > "he"
> > > >>  > and the =
> > > >>
>  no-matter-how-much-descriptivists-say-it's-okay-somewhat-problematic
> > > >>  > "they." My unscientific impression is that this use of "she" is
> > > >>  > gradually becoming de rigueur in academic prose, at least in the
> > > >>  > humanities.
> > > >>  >=20
> > > >>  > The New York Review of Books recently asked "six accomplished
> > critics
> > > >>  > to explain what it is they do." Note their use of the pronoun
> > "she":
> > > >>  >=20
> > > >>  > Stephen Burn: A solitary reader, brooding over an obscure
> > > contemporary
> > > >>  > novel, or slowly puzzling out a page of =93Finnegans Wake,=94 is
> =
> > > >>  suddenly
> > > >>  > not so solitary. Amid the network of networks there is always
> > another
> > > >>  > reader, an improvised community into which she can merge and make
> > > >>  > visible her invented self.
> > > >>  >=20
> > > >>  > Katie Roiphe: Now, maybe more than ever, in a cultural desert
> > > >>  > characterized by the vast, glimmering territory of the Internet,
> it
> > > is
> > > >>  > important for the critic to write gracefully. If she is going to
> > > >>  > separate excellent books from those merely posing as excellent,
> the
> > > >>  > brilliant from the flashy, the real talent from the hyped =97 if
> > she
> > > =
> > > >>  is
> > > >>  > going to ferret out what is lazy and merely fashionable, if she
> is
> > > >>  > going to hold writers to the standards they have set for
> themselves
> > > in
> > > >>  > their best work, if she is going to be the ideal reader and in so
> > > >  > > doing prove that the ideal reader exists =97 then the critic has
> > one
> > > >>  > important function: to write well.
> > > >>  >=20
> > > >>  > Adam Kirsch: Of course, this is an ideal. Most of the time,
> > depending
> > > >>  > on the kind of piece she is writing, the critic also has other
> > > >>  > responsibilities. She is a journalist: a review is, in part, a
> news
> > > >>  > story about a new book and why it matters. She is a consumer
> > > advocate,
> > > >>  > giving the reader enough information to decide whether to buy the
> > > >>  > book. At times =97 as we saw recently in the discussion of
> Jonathan
> > > >>  > Franzen=92s =93Freedom=94 =97 she is a social commentator, trying
> > to
> > > =
> > > >>  determine
> > > >>  > what the success (or failure) of a particular book says about
> > America
> > > >>  > at large, how the nation lives or thinks or imagines.
> > > >>  >=20
> > > >>  > I know, "they" has been used as a gender-neutral singular pronoun
> > > >>  > since the 15th century if not before, but many writers still try
> to
> > > >>  > avoid this use of "they" and in some circles "she" now appears to
> > be
> > > a
> > > >>  > standard gender-neutral pronoun, though even in academic prose it
> > > >>  > obviously still refers to women more often than to men.
> > > >>  >=20
> > > >>  > It would be interesting to know in which disciplines this use of
> > > "she"
> > > >>  > is more prevalent. It's not surprising that it's common in
> lit-crit
> > > >>  > circles.
> > > >>  >=20
> > > >>  > Paul
> > > >>  >=20
> > > >>  > Paul Frank
> > > >>  > Translator
> > > >>  > Chinese, German, French, Italian > English
> > > >>  > Espace de l'Europe 16
> > > >>  > Neuch=E2tel, Switzerland
> > > >>  > mobile +41 79 957 5318
> > > >>  > paulfrank at bfs.admin.ch
> > > >>  > paulfrank at post.harvard.edu
> > > >>  >=20
> > > >>   > ------------------------------------------------------------
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> > > >>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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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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> > >
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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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> >
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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