the collective 'he'

[bookworm]

As we all know, the word 'he' can be used to be gender inclusive and refer to any unspecified person. Well, one of my current textbooks doesn’t seem to agree. Every time a sentence is written that way, the author always uses the word 'she' instead. I mean, he intentionally uses it, in every situation. It’s not like he’s mixing it up here and there, it’s always 'she'.

It’s driving me absolutely nuts! There is no such thing as a collective 'she'! The word she has always had the meaning of ‘a singular female’ it cannot be used in the secondary meaning 'he' can as if the two are interchangeable. And as I said, he does this every time, so in addition to being linguistically incorrect it actually comes off as sexist to me.

That made me curious how you all feel about the collective 'he'. I’ve heard people from time to time claim it’s offensive or chauvinistic, and I believe that’s utterly ridiculous, but if you’re one of those I would be interested in hearing the reason you feel that way.

[Termite]

>_> That's... stupid. Mankind. Kind of man. There are men, but there is ultimately man, including male and female.

...it's funny. Just like every other race than Caucasian can be racist, so can women be sexist. >_>

[bookworm]

Which part is stupid? (Just for clarification, because my post had two completely separate parts to it.)
Part 1, my textbook using 'she'
Part 2, 'he' being offensive to women

[Anna><>]

I'm not a human, I'm a huwoman.
No, but seriously, there's this super feminist girl I know and she's all anti the collective "he" too. She told me a story about playing a game and whenever the cards referred to "he" she abstained from doing whatever it said... It seems stupid in my opinion.

[Amethystic]

I find that often times when an article or something is talking about a fetus or an embryo (unless they're just using 'it', which I can't say I prefer, since it's rather dehumanizing) that is of an undetermined sex, they tend to refer to it as a "she". And while I agree with all the sentiments shared above, in that situation I don't see it as being a weird reverse-sexism thing. For one thing, technically we all start out life as females--you're female by default until that Y chromosome kicks in and testosterone production starts changing things around--and also, there are certain concepts or objects that are considered "feminine" in the English language. (We don't have a masculine/feminine concept of nouns to the extent many languages do, but we still have it here and there.) Ships, for example, are generally referred to as "she", and it's been my perception that fetuses, unless you know for a fact that your baby is going to be a boy, have fallen into the same category.

[Moontide]

I would argue that collective "she" is common enough to be proper grammar. I prefer to use "one" though if I can.

[Christian A.]

This is so weird! I just, for the first time, heard the word "she" used in place of "he" as the collective yesterday! I was in a hospital waiting room where PBS Kids was on, and one of the commercials for a company that donates to the PBS Foundation featured a voiceover that used the word "she" that way. I remarked to my mom about how widespread feminism must be getting if crazy things like this are already starting to be put into place.

[Termite]

Which part is stupid? (Just for clarification, because my post had two completely separate parts to it.)
Part 1, my textbook using 'she'
Part 2, 'he' being offensive to women

....both. I mean, I understand the ships, countries, embryos and whatnot, but sheesh... xP I'd say that author is a bit off his rack.

[Kait]

So it's NOT sexist for them to use "he" as gender neutral, but it IS sexist for them to use "she" as the gender neutral.

And THAT, my friends is what feminism fights against.

Considering that the English language has no gender-neutral pronoun, it really shouldn't matter which one is used. Unless of course, you are a privileged white male who gets offended that your gender is being PUT DOWN BY THEM LIBERALS in which case you should look up the term "privilege."

[Oba-rai]

Lol, what? Seriously?

There's totally a collective she. It's called the 50% of the human race which for centuries has been ignored in favour of the collective he.

[ique]

I remarked to my mom about how widespread feminism must be getting if crazy things like this are already starting to be put into place.

... wow. If I think of a way to respond to that, I'll do so later.

I personally prefer using 'they' where applicable. Even though it's technically plural, so is 'you', so I'm not really concerned.

I find it pretty interesting that you guys are bothered by this, while it's apparently not okay for any women to take offence at 'he'. The issue isn't really one that offends ME (it's kind of less significant to me on the list of patriarchal issues), but I understand why it would be offensive. One of the reasons, I would imagine, is the fact that it kind of represents an underlying, deep-rooted issue, and reflects a long history of inequality.

[EK]

MANkind, HuMAN, MANslaughter, MANwich, MANdolin, Marilyn MANson, MANdible, Eli MANning, MANbearpig, PokeMANZ... you silly feminists don't see the trend here!? I elect we start correcting all usage of the collective 'she', this Y chromosome us males have makes us so much smarter and physically dominant, we deserve to be recognized as the superior gender, duh. I don't see A WOMAN PRESIDENT, do you?! I just see a muslim communist MAN.

While we're at it we also need to fix our species' genus name. I ain't not no kind of homo, Linnaeus, you filthy minded scientist! We're HETEROSAPIENS!

Kait, ique, and Sarai are all pushing their feminist agenda on us. This will not stand!

[Anna><>]

haha, privilege is a joke. The grass is always greener on the other side.

[Oba-rai]

I'm really super curious about what you mean there, Hadassah.

Mostly because quite honestly anyone who denies that privilege still exists probably needs textbooks from this century.

[Anna><>]

I'm not able to spell privilege without spell check... So I think it is funny.

[EK]

haha, privilege is a joke. The grass is always greener on the other side.

"Ain't no grass here doc."

"Y u mad tho?"

[31899]

The term which should be used is 'they.' What is the subject of your textbook?

I've just seen so many posts on tumblr about "privilege" and it's just really funny.
I know that it exists, but male privilege seems really exaggerated a lot of times to me.

Please explain pay-gaps, why there are more males than females in positions of power, gender based advertisements, why the majority television and film can't even pass the Bechdel test, et cetera.

[Anna><>]

Well men are better than women so they deserve all they get. Women are never as skilled as men at anything outside of the home.

[Aeva]

I'm a girl, and I couldn't care less about the collective "he" pronoun. It's gramatically correct; there's nothing sexist about it.

[31899]

Well men are better than women so they deserve all they get. Women are never as skilled as men at anything outside of the home.

*rage quit*