Dude. I could have used "person", but would be left with a "he or she". Stilted.

Assuming you agree (since you changed your post)

I didn't realize that changing my post so as not to offend someone implies I agree with them. I will change it back.

you didn't look for it

I didn't? Funny, I thought I did. But I guess you know better.

What you mean is, you trust readers of the "wrong" gender to interpret.

Maybe I am a better source on what I mean than your malicious imagination.

If you look over previous things I've written, you'll see that sometimes I say "he", and sometimes I say "she". I have been conscious of every single time I wrote "he" or "she" probably since before you were born. But I write one post, over 3000 words long, in which I have exactly one case of gendered speech, and the coin flip comes up so that I write "he" instead of she, and you're all over me for being an insensitive sexist pig.

If all that my 20+ years of carefully writing gender-balanced text has done is to encourage people like you feel entitled to lecture me from your moral high horse on any occasion when I don't measure up completely to your standards, then I'm done being gender-neutral. Apparently it just makes things worse.

I'm sorry that I originally replied flippantly. This whole exchange wouldn't have happened if I'd just quietly changed the text.

Let's hear from other readers. 2 readers are offended by non-gender-neutral language. If any of you think that authors should be allowed to use gendered language, let him or her speak, or forever hold his or her peace.