Saturday, January 28, 2006

Note to speakers: no smarmy use of 'she', please

I'm at a meeting of the Executive Board of the California Deocratic Party here in L.A. Lots of speakers, so far all of them male.

And I have some advice: you erase any points you may have been trying to score with your use of the feminine pronoun (whether referring to God or anyone else) if it's accompanied by a smarmy grin and chuckle.

It's a rare man who really rolls those 'she's and 'her's off their tongue naturally. (David Weinberger being an exception I've noted before.)

So practice saying it casually and easily or not at all.

I'm just saying.


Comments:
Oh, hell yes. I hate it when they make a point of pointing out their use of the feminine pronoun. Blech.
 
For those that can't handle the "she," do you recommend "they" or "he". "They" normally sounds goofy to me when you only mean one person. I've always used the "he" since that is how I was tought in school to reference one unknown gender person. I really, really, really hate when people jump back and forth from he to she within the same context. Who is this unknown person that keeps having the sex change anyway?
 
What's wrong with just saying "he or she"? Sure it's two more syllables, but it covers all the bases.
 
Perhaps it's a sign that when speaking we should talk about real stories/case studies about real people with actual genders, instead of hypothetical situations.

I know that sounds snarky, but really, think about it.
 
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