Gender in Language

It’s really quite surprising how many of our English expressions and thoughts are predicated on gender.

• We have “crazy cat ladies,” not “crazy cat men.”
• “All men are created equal,” to say nothing about the women.
• “Nurse” conjures to mind a woman, not a man, for most people.
• Firemen, not fireperson or firewoman.
• Policeman, not policeperson or policewoman.
• Mankind, man-made, the common man.
• Freshman, not first-year student.

I never really noticed this before I admitted to myself that I was transgendered. It was just the way we as a society talked. Now, though, I’m starting to realize just how much we assume about gender, whether referring to a profession, a person, or anything.

Now, I realize that transgender people are not common, and I’m not going to get mad at people for calling me “he” when I’m presenting myself as male. In most cases, it’s perfectly fine to assume that a person’s sex reflects their gender. Still, it would be nice if English teachers got over their habit of correcting this:

“If a student writes this sentence, then /they/ will be corrected.”

The word “they” has evolved in our daily speech to the point where it is interchangeable with the phrase “he or she,” I would say. It’s mixing the singular “a student” with the traditionally plural “they,” I realize that, and as an amateur author I notice this kind of thing, but it’s much more convenient to use “they” than the unwieldy “he or she.”

Many non-English languages don’t have this problem at all. Lots of them have masculine forms, feminine forms, and neutral forms. I don’t think English is ready to create a “third gender” for its words—some linguists advocate using “hir,” for example—but an acceptance of “they” would be nice.

There’s a really fantastic article on gender-sensitivity in the language here: http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/gender.html

Life is great! Kate (my girlfriend of two and a half years) will be coming to stay with me for the winter holidays—about two weeks. She gets in on Friday.

Happy holidays!