[Ads-l] “Neutrality”

[Jonathan Lighter]

Which reminds me.

Latin, of course, has three genders, so every noun and pronoun is marked as
masculine, feminine, or neuter.

Thus (according to my personal semantic theory), men and women (and things)
had more or less equal representation in the lexicon.

Funny how this equality was never reflected in Roman attitudes toward
women.

Or other languages with grammatical gender.

JL

On Sat, Jul 20, 2019 at 11:41 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> And - I love belaboring the obvious - the "n-word" is  universally
> recognized as used by non-blacks to demean, degrade, reject, intimidate,
> etc. Even by those who use it.
>
> Unlike "journeyman" and "manhole."
>
> JL
>
> On Fri, Jul 19, 2019 at 11:57 PM Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> > I think the issue for many jobs is the use of "man" presumes "it's a
>> man's
>> > job" and women can't do it.
>>
>> I don't. But, OTOH, I think that _n-word_ sucks donkey dick. "Different
>> strokes..."
>>
>> On Fri, Jul 19, 2019 at 5:19 PM Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> > I think the issue for many jobs is the use of "man" presumes "it's a
>> man's
>> > job" and women can't do it.
>> >
>> > I can imagine women combating that presumption prefer the gender neutral
>> > term to "man". I can also imagine those not having to fight the
>> presumption
>> > don't care as much.
>> >
>> > On Fri, Jul 19, 2019, 3:40 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
>> > wrote:
>> >
>> > > We've been through this before.
>> > >
>> > > Why would I care?
>> > >
>> > > Except that I'd have been told  to.
>> > >
>> > > Around 1979, about when the "neutrality" craze began, I asked the
>> women
>> > in
>> > > my class how many found generic "man" to be sexist.  Only two out of
>> > about
>> > > a dozen. When asked, their reason was that a high-school English
>> teacher
>> > > had told them so.
>> > >
>> > > Several years later, I tried it on another class, and the objections
>> were
>> > > unanimous.
>> > >
>> > > BTW, no female journeyman will see her pay raised or find herself
>> safer
>> > > from predators by changing the word.
>> > >
>> > > JL
>> > >
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > On Fri, Jul 19, 2019 at 3:12 PM Barretts Mail <
>> mail.barretts at gmail.com>
>> > > wrote:
>> > >
>> > > > If you were a woman journeyman, would you appreciate being called a
>> > > > “journeyman”? BB
>> > > >
>> > > > > On 19 Jul 2019, at 09:04, David Barnhart <dbarnhart at HIGHLANDS.COM
>> >
>> > > > wrote:
>> > > > >
>> > > > > Aren’t most -man/-men words neutral?
>> > > >
>> > > > ------------------------------------------------------------
>> > > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> > > >
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > --
>> > > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
>> > truth."
>> > >
>> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
>> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> > >
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
>> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> >
>>
>>
>> --
>> -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
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>


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

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org