[Ads-l] Berkeley and gender neutral words

[Mark Mandel]

*(Warning: Chinese quotation marks are used here to bracket a particularly
long and involved noun phrase.)*

I disagree with Jonathan's scornful dismissal of the issue. ISTM that the
great majority of *「*the objectors to the use of female nouns for cases
where the referent's gender is irrelevant to the function*」* are motivated
at least as much by personal feeling as by a desire to protect other people
from the evil influence of «*"-man" words, which are dangerously,
irremediably sexist and malign.»* And he and I, as men, are unqualified to
judge the emotional and social effect these words may have on women.

Mark Mandel

On Fri, Jul 19, 2019, 9:16 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> "Goddess" is somehow doing well.
>
> The neutrality craze is based in part on the elementary fallacy that a
> word's meaning is dictated by its etymology.  Another significant basis is
> the a priori belief that speakers of English are as sensitive to nuance as
> are a subset of people with Ph.Ds and must, in any case, be protected from
> "-man" words, which are dangerously, irremediably sexist and malign.
>
> JL
>
>
>

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