2 ms·
I always thought the masculine pronoun was used when talking about people as a collective since we sometimes refer to ourselves as "mankind". They do that in th
by 2muchcoffeeman 10y ago
I always thought the masculine pronoun was used when talking about people as a collective since we sometimes refer to ourselves as "mankind". They do that in this document, so we thus use "men", "he" etc to be consistent.
I wouldn't use "she" as a collective noun unless I also used a more neutral "humankind" or something. But really I prefer to use "they".
I suppose the time at which the US constitution was written was much more sexist than it is now, but I always thought it read fairly neutrally.
- icebraining 10y agoOh, I'm not talking about pronouns, but about the underlying ideas, and the disregard for women as independent citizens. For example, the 19th Amendment was passed less than a century ago. And there's Scalia's argument[1] that the 14th Amendment doesn't prohibit discrimination by gender or sexual orientation; we find the implications appalling, but was he wrong? In any case, it's mostly a matter of having caution when reading these works, since their importance might cloud our judgment. [1] http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/256401/does-constitution-protect-against-sex-discrimination-john-yoo http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/256401/does-constitutio...
- unclenoriega 10y agoI was taught to use masculine collective pronouns as well, but 'mankind' is perhaps not the best example. It dates to Old English, when 'man' was a gender-neutral term meaning 'human'. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=man&allowed_in_frame=0 http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=man&allowed_in_fram...