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chaosmosis comments on Call for Anonymous Narratives by LW Women and Question Proposals (AMA) - Less Wrong Discussion
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On a related note, I generally either use the neutral form of the word, or put a note about how even though I used the masculine form I don't like patriarchy. It's just sometimes a hassle to neuter everything, and I like going with the tradition of using the masculine form because I've already internalized it. But I don't want it to feel like I'm overlooking women's concerns.
Anyone here dislike that?
I've found that it's possible to avoid gendered pronouns with a little work. You may find that practice helps.
If they can't be avoided there's always "he or she", possibly alternated with "she or he".
For what it's worth, I don't like male as the default human. It's very far from the worst thing ever, but I recommend avoiding it.
The singular "they" is grammatically correct and requires less effort than "he or she" or alternating "he" and "she".
The generic "she" isn't gender-nuetral, but I think it's fine to use when everyone else is using the generic "he". Like affirmative action for pronouns. I usually use "they", but whenever I see an animal and I don't know it's gender I call it a "she". Because most people will call the animal "he" and I want to counter-act that.
So, specifically, if I used the masculine form but then also put down a note about how I don't like patriarchy, would you would still feel bad or think I'm supporting bad assumptions? The note thing is what I generally do in the status quo, and what requires the least effort on my part.
I can understand if you would still feel bad, I just wanted to make sure you saw the note caveat I mentioned because you didn't mention anything about it in your comment.
I actually either missed the note caveat, or else didn't mention it because I don't think that sort of note helps.
The thing is, I still have a mental habit of seeing male as default human-- I'm not just hoping to get rid of that in my own mind, I'd really prefer it if the meme of male as default human isn't spread.