Re: Sex Change
Posted: February 13th, 2014, 10:26 pm
The problem, of course, is in our language.Professional Tourist wrote:Yes, opinions will vary, but I'm surprised that you see shame at a factor for women who prefer (or accept) gender-inclusive terms.Fossy wrote:All interesting comments, but perhaps I am old fashioned. I still believe that an actress who calls herself (or allows herself to be called) an actor is ashamed of being female.
If you can remember back a few decades, when it was less common for men to become registered nurses, they were generally referred to as 'male nurses'. This phrase has since fallen into disuse and 'male nurse' has mostly been dropped. Do you feel that a man who is an RN who calls himself or allows himself to be called a 'nurse' rather than a 'male nurse' is ashamed of being male?
If only it had started out with two designations for males, married and unmarried, we might not have any problem.
Then, there's the fact that we don't seem to be able to come up with a gender-negative pronoun. I've seen s/he, but I think it's dreadful. We need something that will make the switch easy, as changing from Mrs./Miss to Ms was.
At least we don't assign gender to inanimate objects! Think what a problem THAT would cause today. Male Warships and Female Luxury Liners all become Overboats?