[Smt-talk] Last about Gender Terminology in Writings

[Victor grauer]

"D. Poor student, they do not know what to expect."

I agree with Dr. Ninov regarding the inappropriateness of the above sentence. I'll go farther -- such constructions are imo an abomination and should not be tolerated. At the same time I also agree with those arguing for the elimination, wherever possible, of language that others would reasonably consider offensive, such as the use of so-called "sexist" constructions. I agree with both Dr. Ninov and Dr. Bain that there is no point in rewriting historical texts, but there IS a point in being as sensitive as possible to the feelings of others when constructing contemporary texts. 

What we must be willing to accept, however, is that certain "sexist" constructions are built into most languages and can often be very difficult to eliminate completely without producing gibberish. The example raised concerning the role of gender in French speaks for itself. There is no way anyone could get around that without radically altering the language itself. In English, however, we do have some options.

There is almost always a way to sidestep the problem by, for example, substituting a construction such as "It is important for every student to carefully prepare his essay" with "It is important for all students to carefully prepare their essays." But imo it is NOT acceptable to write "It is important for every student to carefully prepare their essay." I see that kind of thing far too often and cringe each and every time. And each time it shaves approximately 10 minutes from my life. If I read too much "gender neutral" language of this kind I could pass away long before my time!


On Thursday, May 1, 2014 9:02 PM, "Ninov, Dimitar N" <dn16 at txstate.edu> wrote:
 
Dear Jennifer,
>
>Thanks for the nice letter and clarifications. I personally apologize to you for having caused such an emotional turmoil in your mind.
>
>The few last things I want to
 add in relation to gender language, are: 
>
>1) My main point has never been about discrimination versus non discrimination; it has been about aesthetics in the construction of the literary sentence, and the necessary freedom to accommodate fluent language.
>
>2) I find the word "sexist" ugly per se. When it is thrown at someone like condemnation, it already smells like the dark ages of the Spanish Inquisition and predetermines the destiny of the poor fellow - to burn at the stake. I would never use officially terms such as "sexist" or "non sexist", even if I were an editor who provides directions as of how to write correctly. For such purposes I would use "specific gender language" versus "general gender language".
>
>3) I maintain that an author has to have freedom in dealing with literary language. For example, I would accept any of
 the four versions of the following sentence: A. Poor student, he does not know what to expect. B. Poor student, she does not know what to expect C. Poor student, he or she does not know what to expect. and D. Poor student, they do not know what to expect. For me, D is most objectionable, because it contains conspicuous disagreement between the noun and the pronoun. After that, C has a little glitch because the direction of motion is twisted for an instant by the superfluous repetition of the pronoun. Having said that, I think these considerations shall be left to the discretion of the writer.
>
>4) I believe that, no matter what the official policy of a publisher is, quotations of original passages shall not be edited in terms of gender language, because this would be the end of professionalism and the beginning of self-embarrassment for those who cripple original works in this manner.
>
>Thank you for your understanding.
>
>Best regards,
>
>Dimitar
>
>
>Dr. Dimitar Ninov, Lecturer
>School of Music
>Texas State University
>601 University Drive
>San Marcos, Texas 78666
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