Re: virus: Nature of Information
Marie Foster (mfos@ieway.com)
Sat, 18 Oct 1997 16:11:05 -0700
Tim Rhodes wrote:
>
> On Fri, 17 Oct 1997, Marie Foster wrote:
>
> > Tad is poetical in his responses often but me thinks he is using "she"
> > to obliquely identify one or more of the women on the list. I might
> > point out to Tad (as I sometimes get the feeling from his posts that he
> > is a pretty confident fellow), that making such statements might be
> > received by others as a tad bit insulting. (No pun intended.)
>
> Interestingly, when I read the post in question I noted how the "Use she
> as often as he in writing" meme has been gaining ground in the last couple
> years. Why should "he" be used as a blanket pronoun when "she" works just
> as well? What a great advance for the sisterhood!
>
> An then I wondered how the women on the list (an in the world in general)
> would react to this change.
>
> And then you wrote.
>
> -Prof. Tim
I was being imprecise again. Tad used the pronoun she in *that* post.
Sometimes my attempts at humor are less successful than others. Also,
due to my age I accept *he* as a universal pronoun devoid of gender that
acknowledges our paternalistic recent history as a species.
Speaking of which, while pater has an antonym of mater I do not find a
word called matronize (as oposite of patronize). Interesting.
Marie
who does tend to matronize