6 ms·

Why is 'her' used here, if the author is male?

by lawnchair_larry 15y ago

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
teaspoon 15y ago
Because the subject of the sentence is "a startup founder", not "Jason Cohen".
- marknutter 15y ago
  It's always irritated me to see the use of the word "her" because of the blatant political-correctness of it. If you want to be PC, use "their".
  - slewis 15y ago
    So we can only use "his" or "their"?
  - jiggy2011 15y ago
    constantly using "their" when reading anything that remotely resembles a story gets old pretty fast.
  - rfrey 15y ago
    You don't like implied political correctness. OP doesn't like implied gender bias. I don't like grammatical convolutions like using "their". What's to be done? How about focusing on the message?
    - marknutter 15y ago
      > what's to be done? use "their"
- mikemaccana 15y ago
  Then use 'their'.
  - sp332 15y ago
    This particular (hypothetical) startup founder happens to be singular, and female.
    - lawnchair_larry 15y ago
      https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Singular_they https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Singular_they
      - sp332 15y ago
        That's the exact opposite of the situation. I pointed out that the founder is singular and female, but the "singular they" is used for indeterminate number and/or gender.
olalonde 15y ago
Yep, kind of misleading. I thought the article would specifically target female founders.
drumdance 15y ago
http://blog.asmartbear.com/value-time.html#comment-407310992 http://blog.asmartbear.com/value-time.html#comment-407310992
bdesimone 15y ago
Usually the masculine form is used as a gender-neutral pronoun. While correct, with no contextual need to deviate from the norm, I find the title unnecessarily distracting. But not as distracting as mismatching number and writing "their time" instead.
robobenjie 15y ago
And I was pleasantly surprised to find that (this time) I hadn't noticed until reading the comments. If we live in a world where one group of people is the norm and other groups need special distinction to identify them ("he" is a generic hypothetical person, but "she" means the person has to be female) then we have to undergo social change to bring us to center. This is likely to be uncomfortable.

Why is 'her' used here, if the author is male?

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

teaspoon 15y ago

Because the subject of the sentence is "a startup founder", not "Jason Cohen".

marknutter 15y ago
It's always irritated me to see the use of the word "her" because of the blatant political-correctness of it. If you want to be PC, use "their".
- slewis 15y ago
  So we can only use "his" or "their"?
- jiggy2011 15y ago
  constantly using "their" when reading anything that remotely resembles a story gets old pretty fast.
- rfrey 15y ago
  You don't like implied political correctness. OP doesn't like implied gender bias. I don't like grammatical convolutions like using "their". What's to be done? How about focusing on the message?
  - marknutter 15y ago
    > what's to be done? use "their"
mikemaccana 15y ago
Then use 'their'.
- sp332 15y ago
  This particular (hypothetical) startup founder happens to be singular, and female.
  - lawnchair_larry 15y ago
    https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Singular_they https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Singular_they
    - sp332 15y ago
      That's the exact opposite of the situation. I pointed out that the founder is singular and female, but the "singular they" is used for indeterminate number and/or gender.

olalonde 15y ago

Yep, kind of misleading. I thought the article would specifically target female founders.

drumdance 15y ago

http://blog.asmartbear.com/value-time.html#comment-407310992 http://blog.asmartbear.com/value-time.html#comment-407310992

bdesimone 15y ago

Usually the masculine form is used as a gender-neutral pronoun. While correct, with no contextual need to deviate from the norm, I find the title unnecessarily distracting. But not as distracting as mismatching number and writing "their time" instead.

robobenjie 15y ago

And I was pleasantly surprised to find that (this time) I hadn't noticed until reading the comments. If we live in a world where one group of people is the norm and other groups need special distinction to identify them ("he" is a generic hypothetical person, but "she" means the person has to be female) then we have to undergo social change to bring us to center. This is likely to be uncomfortable.