This is the last week of the first term and while many of us eagerly look forward to and drown in organizational matters concerning long stays in the US in the coming weeks it is also already a sad time of good-byes. today especially as it was the last of Luita's great classes on academic writing.
In one of those sessions some weeks back we discussed strategies to avoid gendered language in academic writing, which is far more complicated and difficult than just the issue of the generic 'he'. The (as always) great handout on the matter is the longest we got by being 3 pages of densly written text with the (typical for Luita) witty subtitle "Why and how not to insult people".
Among other issues we also problematized the option of replacing the generic he with a similarly generic 'she'. This has to be dismissed on several grounds: not only is it based on the same amount of sexism as the generic 'he' - even though it promotes the historically constructed underdog, but - especially if in an attempt to achieve some balance within a text by switching between the pronouns which may also lead to confusion for the reader - studies show that if switching is employed most texts manifest sexism again on the level of using the pronouns in connection with stereotypically more male or female actions. Meaning that even if it is done in an attempt of equality and balance, actions associated with feelings tend to get more female pronouns and action is usually male connotated.
In this context, I can now not help but wonder, whether the use of a female reader persona in an academic text dealing with aesthetic reception of Gone With The Wind is not rather an act of sexism on the part of the (male) author of the text?
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3 comments:
we need another pronoun. but in the meantime i'm sticking to "they"
well... they is not always possible, sometimes the singular is necessary for a point but in the case referred to they would have worked even better! and other than that a nice 'one' mixed with occasional he or she could do the trick even if only remotely elegant.... but not in white mail and still slightly chauvinistic profs, it seems... tough already a lot better in style than others.... ;)
are you referring to anyone in particular? ;)
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