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Re: gender bias in language
Faybienne Geenhuizen (fgeenhzn@IU.NET)
Thu, 6 Apr 1995 22:47:35 -0400
John Langdon writes:
>" ... I have conscientiously tried to eradicate 'sexist' language such as
>'mankind' from my course in human evolution, among others, but I consistently
>find students -- male and female equally -- using 'man' and 'mankind.' It is
>clear that to them the words maintain their prefeminist meanings ...."
It may also be that the women in this course find themselves outnumbered
by the men and under the authority of a male professor, and decide it is
more prudent under the circumstances to just "go with the flow".
The indignity of having to refer to oneself (female) as "man" is not
sufficient to warrant annoying one's professor, who may have indicated
(here, and perhaps subtly in his class) that he might be offended by it.
Faybienne Geenhuizen
fgeenhzn@iu.net
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