Friday, August 25, 2006

'they' is the new 'he/she'

i'm back from virginia and have finally gotten most of my work overload out of the way. now i'll be able to go back to reading and commenting on blogs that are more than a few sentences, as well as write up some more of my own.

the title of this post is the beginning of a new revolution to make the singular they an acceptable gender-neutral pronoun in academia. bryant knows much more about all of this, so this is also some encouragement for him to post more about it.

4 comments:

  1. Ok. I was planning to post about this, but I've been putting it off because I'm afraid it's gonna be a long post. But I'll get on it.

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  2. I attempted to do this ten years ago at Carleton. I sometimes got away with it, but more often was struck down by my profs - sometimes with outright disdain on their (pl.) part.

    However, a number of my fellow classmates at the time - who, unlike me, have actually gone on into the professional ranks of the academy - employed the same usage so perhaps they (pl.) are helping to effect this change.
    One hopes it is the case, as he/she is rather kludgy.

    Honestly though, I'm really just posting this in a vain attempt to get some recognition from the L. Pathetic...

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  3. hey ben! missed ya in mormon theology today. how have you been? i've been doing pretty good.

    i'm sorry that you got occasionally shut down at Carleton. I have a renewed hope that times are different now and this movement will have fertile grounds of academia to sprout and grow.

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  4. To clarify: I got shut down, and shot down, all the time at Carleton.

    Sorry I missed the class too - not sure how often I'll be able to attend. I did, however, send twin #2 that direction this afternoon.

    The acknowledgement was nice, thanks. Though, honestly, it does seem a little forced.

    sigh...

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