[Smt-talk] Last about Gender Terminology in Writings

[David K Feurzeig]

Devin Chaloux <devin.chaloux at gmail.com> wrote:

> However, at times I feel like Strunk and White (and other authoritative sources on grammar) feel extremely dated in this situation. 

E.B. White is one of the great English stylists of all time, IMO, and some of his advice is timeless. But not all of it. To cite just one example, in the New Yorker (not Strunk and White) he lamented the use of "contact" as a verb.

(Or did he lament it as a noun? I can't even suss which one is the neologism without looking it up.) 

I can't believe anyone is still debating the alleged neutrality of masculine references in English. As grad writing TA's in training in the 1980s, my cohort was presented with the sentence (from some encyclopedia or other): 
"Man nurses his young longer than most mammals." 
I've never looked back.


David Feurzeig
University of Vermont
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