Re: Gender, Language, etc.

Lief M. Hendrickson (hendrick@NOSC.MIL)
Tue, 11 Apr 1995 09:36:41 PDT

On Apr 10, Bret Diamond wrote:

>Just came across this quote in "The Study of Culture" by LL Langness,
>thought it was pertinent to the controversey surrounding the use of
>mankind etc. The quote is authored by anthropologist Gustave Lebon, and it
>was published in "one of the leading anthropological journals of its time"
>(according to Langness). There's no specific date, but in context with
>the rest of the article, I'd say it was written approximately in 1890.

Maybe the ridiculous quote was pertinent to Gustave Lebon and to your
thinking, but it does not address language control which was what the
discussion was about.


> ... If I had had to live under the weight of this
>type of oppression, I guess I might be a little touchy about the use
>various gender-specific words myself.

- which is a good reason to consider certain words we've been
discussing as being gender-inclusive - to eliminate their usage as
gender-exclusion mechanisms (self-applied or otherwise).


I'm outta here. Happy Easter all.