标签: gender

I often find myself sitting on the horns of a dilemma. (Note to self, must buy some padded undergarments.) This time it's with regard to creating gender-neutral prose in my engineering writings. In around a quarter of the world's languages, nouns inherently reflect the grammatical category called gender. Common gender divisions include masculine and feminine (as in French and Spanish) and masculine , feminine , and neuter (as in German). Generally speaking—in the wider scheme of things—modern English is not considered to have grammatical gender. However, Old English did employ the concept of gender, and a few remnants of that system still exist, such as the distinct third-person pronouns he , she , and it . Of course, we have all sorts of words that are gender-biased, such as "chairman" and "mankind." When I was younger, I didn't think about this at all, it was just the way of the world. I remember when things started to change and it was no longer politically correct to refer to someone as the chairman, for example. Initially, "chairperson" grated on my ears, but I've grown used to it (and similar substitutions) over time. On the other hand, the idea of referring to someone as the "chair" tends to drives me up the wall. I also think it makes perfect sense to refer to everyone collectively as "humanity" or "humankind," as opposed to "mankind." The other day while working on my forthcoming book about grammar and punctuation for engineers, I caught myself about to say "penmanship" and swapped this out for "handwriting skills." (I know, even my mother is amazed that I would be writing such a book.) But then there are times when you want to say something like, "An engineer should look after his tools." Eeek! I used the gender-specific "his," even though engineers come in all shapes, sizes, and genders. There are, of course, all sorts of different tricks to get around this. First of all we can use plurals, as in, "All engineers should look after their tools." Or we can move to the second person and say "If you want to be an engineer, you should look after your tools." Some writers take the approach that they will simply swap out "his" and "him" with "her," as in, "An engineer should look after her tools." I think the idea here is either to try to redress the historical balance by going the other way, or mayhap to tweak the reader into thinking... well, I'm not sure what, really. Other writers flip back and forth using "his" and "her" alternately. Still others use the incredibly awkward "he or she" or "his or her," as in, "An engineer should look after his or her tools." Similarly, it's not uncommon to see "(s)he" or "s/he," as in, "You would be surprised if (s)he were to take a bite of your bacon sandwich." (It's surprisingly difficult to come up with good examples when you are trying to write something like this blog. Contrary-wise, it's surprisingly easy to run into them when you really don't want to.) The ideal solution would be to have a gender-neutral pronoun. Indeed, people have been suggesting options like nis and hiser for over 150 years, along the lines of, "Everyone loves nis mother," or, "Everyone loves hiser mother." Personally, I would grab onto a solution of this ilk with gusto and abandon, but I fear the chances of something like this coming to pass in my lifetime are slight. How about you? How do you tiptoe your way through this metaphorical minefield? If you see something like, "An engineer should look after his tools," does this make you cringe inside, do you not notice, or do you simply not care?  

My friend Alex just emailed me one of those stuffs that goes back and forth around the Internet. Some of these have been around for some time, but others are new and there are a few laughs to be had...     What do you expect from such simple creatures? Men are the happier gender because:   * Your last name stays put. * The garage is all yours. * Wedding plans take care of themselves. * Chocolate is just another snack. * You can be President. * You can never be pregnant. * You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park. * You can wear NO shirt to a water park. * Car mechanics tell you the truth. * You never have to drive to another gas station restroom because this one is just too icky. * You don't have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a bolt. * Same work, more pay. * Wrinkles add character. * Wedding dress = $5000. Tux rental = $100. * People never stare at your chest when you're talking to them. * New shoes don't cut, blister, or mangle your feet. * One mood, all the time. * Phone converzations are over in 30 seconds flat. * You know stuff about tanks. * A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase. * You can open all your own jars. * You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness. * If someone forgets to invite you, he or she can still be your friend. * Your underwear is $8.95 for a three-pack. * Three pairs of shoes are more than enough. * You almost never have strap problems in public. * You are unable to see wrinkles in your clothes. * Everything on your face stays its original color. * The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe decades. * You only have to shave your face and neck. * You can play with toys all your life. * You can wear shorts no matter how your legs look. * You can 'do' your nails with a pocket knife. * You have freedom of choice concerning growing a mustache. * You can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives on December 24 in 25 minutes.     NICKNAMES   * If Laura, Kate and Sarah go out for lunch, they will call each other Laura, Kate, and Sarah. * If Mike, Dave and John go out, they will affectionately refer to each other as Fat Boy, Bubba, and Wildman.   EATING OUT   * When the bill arrives, Mike, Dave and John will each throw in $20, even though it's only for $32.50. None of them will have anything smaller and none will actually admit they want change back. * When the girls get their bill, out comes the pocket calculators.   MONEY   * A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs. * A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn't need but it's on sale.   BATHROOMS   * A man has six items in his bathroom: toothbrush and toothpaste, shaving cream, razor, a bar of soap, and a towel. * The average number of items in the typical woman's bathroom is 337. A man would not be able to identify more than 20 of these items.   ARGUMENTS   * A woman has the last word in any argument. * Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.   FUTURE   * A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband. * A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.   MARRIAGE   * A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't. * A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change, but she does.   DRESSING UP   * A woman will dress up to go shopping, water the plants, empty the trash, answer the phone, read a book, and get the mail. * A man will dress up for weddings and funerals.   NATURAL   * Men wake up as good-looking as they went to bed. * Women somehow deteriorate during the night.   OFFSPRING   * Ah, children. A woman knows all about her children. She knows about dentist appointments and romances, best friends, favorite foods, secret fears and hopes and dreams. * A man is vaguely aware of some short people living in the house.   THOUGHT FOR THE DAY   * A married man should forget his mistakes (there's no point in two people remembering the same thing)!  

There are a few laughs to be had. My friend Alex just emailed me one of those stuffs that goes back and forth around the Internet. Some of these are quite old, but others are new. They're all still funny nonetheless.     What do you expect from such simple creatures? Men are the happier gender because:   * Your last name stays put. * The garage is all yours. * Wedding plans take care of themselves. * Chocolate is just another snack. * You can be President. * You can never be pregnant. * You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park. * You can wear NO shirt to a water park. * Car mechanics tell you the truth. * You never have to drive to another gas station restroom because this one is just too icky. * You don't have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a bolt. * Same work, more pay. * Wrinkles add character. * Wedding dress = $5000. Tux rental = $100. * People never stare at your chest when you're talking to them. * New shoes don't cut, blister, or mangle your feet. * One mood, all the time. * Phone converzations are over in 30 seconds flat. * You know stuff about tanks. * A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase. * You can open all your own jars. * You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness. * If someone forgets to invite you, he or she can still be your friend. * Your underwear is $8.95 for a three-pack. * Three pairs of shoes are more than enough. * You almost never have strap problems in public. * You are unable to see wrinkles in your clothes. * Everything on your face stays its original color. * The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe decades. * You only have to shave your face and neck. * You can play with toys all your life. * You can wear shorts no matter how your legs look. * You can 'do' your nails with a pocket knife. * You have freedom of choice concerning growing a mustache. * You can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives on December 24 in 25 minutes.     NICKNAMES   * If Laura, Kate and Sarah go out for lunch, they will call each other Laura, Kate, and Sarah. * If Mike, Dave and John go out, they will affectionately refer to each other as Fat Boy, Bubba, and Wildman.   EATING OUT   * When the bill arrives, Mike, Dave and John will each throw in $20, even though it's only for $32.50. None of them will have anything smaller and none will actually admit they want change back. * When the girls get their bill, out comes the pocket calculators.   MONEY   * A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs. * A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn't need but it's on sale.   BATHROOMS   * A man has six items in his bathroom: toothbrush and toothpaste, shaving cream, razor, a bar of soap, and a towel. * The average number of items in the typical woman's bathroom is 337. A man would not be able to identify more than 20 of these items.   ARGUMENTS   * A woman has the last word in any argument. * Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.   FUTURE   * A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband. * A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.   MARRIAGE   * A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't. * A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change, but she does.   DRESSING UP   * A woman will dress up to go shopping, water the plants, empty the trash, answer the phone, read a book, and get the mail. * A man will dress up for weddings and funerals.   NATURAL   * Men wake up as good-looking as they went to bed. * Women somehow deteriorate during the night.   OFFSPRING   * Ah, children. A woman knows all about her children. She knows about dentist appointments and romances, best friends, favorite foods, secret fears and hopes and dreams. * A man is vaguely aware of some short people living in the house.   THOUGHT FOR THE DAY   * A married man should forget his mistakes (there's no point in two people remembering the same thing)!