Theos-Talk Archives (October 1996 Message tl00213)

        Dear Maurice,

        You're implying that we should have a language without any sex. What
a bore that would be! What we're looking for is language which gives women
an equal break with men. As for instance, very often when someone is making
a very generalized statement, they use the pronoun "he" when they really
mean "all people". If you look at the literature, you'll see that these
kinds of practices are very ingrained. I once noticed that Annie Besant does
the same thing I do,  because we were brought up that way. When we talk
about a person in command, we invariably assume that it's a "he". One just
thinks of anyone who's anybody, or accomplishes anything, as "he"; and it
takes an effort to think of such a person as "she". That's what we're
talking about. We're tired of being considered 2d class citizens.

Liesel