Re: [boost] Gender neutral documentation

From: Angus Leeming (angus.leeming_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-11-04 06:13:28

Anthony Williams wrote:
> The use of "she" implies the person in question is female. Though
> "he" technically also has the implication that the person is male,
> it is general usage that "he" is used as a stand in for "he or she".
> If we really want to be gender neutral, we should write "he or she",
> which is what we really mean. Sometimes this is abbreviated "s/he",
> but that's an ugly kludge. Better would be to rewrite the sentence
> to avoid the issue.

>> My personal preference is to use "they" as the first person
>> singular gender-neutral pronoun.  This will be /intensely/
>> irritating to grammar purists, but does seem to be the way the
>> language is evolving.

> I don't like this, but it is preferable to "she".

We do have a pronoun for just such a usage, albeit one that appears to
be used today only by the British royal family. Perhaps it sounds
archaic, but one understands what one is talking about when one uses
the correct language.

Regards from yet another Brit,
Angus