If you are the type of person who hates the use of 'he-or-she' instead of 'he,' this is the article for you:
Of course all languages change. A feminist might say that he-or-she is merely the latest twist in our ever-changing cowpath; that he-or-she was the will of the people. But this too is a lie, and in fairness to my opponents I have never heard them deploy it. They know that Americans of the late 1960s were not struck en masse by sudden unhappiness over the neutral he or the word "chairman." Such complaints never did rank high on the average American's list of worries. (Way back in the 1970s, "chairperson" was in fact a one-word joke: an object lesson in the ludicrous places you would reach if you took Feminist English seriously.) In fact the New English was deliberately created and pounded into children's heads by an intellectual elite asserting its control over American culture. The same conclusion follows independently from a language's well-established tendency to simplify and compress its existing structure (like a settling sea-bed) to make room for constantly arriving new coinages. Words like "authoress" would almost certainly have disappeared with no help from feminists. But "he" transforming itself into "he or she" is like a ball rolling uphill. It doesn't happen unless someone has volunteered to push.
More here.




3 Comments
Marjorie | March 14, 2008, 11:39am | #
So more inclusive language is bad because it didn't happen as organically as most other changes in English?
Also, if you don't like "he or she," use the singular "they." Sure, pedants like E.B. White might not like it, but they are being overly fussy and arbitrary. After all, if "he" can mean "he or she," then "they" can also mean "he or she."
Marjorie | March 14, 2008, 11:42am | #
Gelernter's point is just so much whining. His side has lost this one. Educated professional people don't say "mankind" any more, nor do they say "he" to mean "he or she." I am not in academia, yet I have not heard the old terminology for years. I guess it wasn't that hard a ball to roll up hill. I think these changes have been easily accepted because they reflect a real change in meaning as more people accept an egalitarian worldview .
StingR | March 17, 2008, 9:25am | #
Ugh! "They" is even worse.