User talk:Synoptic
Gender neutral pronouns
Although I would not want anyone to feel excluded by using "he" to indicate a person of unknown gender, that is the traditional gender-neutral pronoun in such cases. It may not be "politically correct" in contemporary times, but it does have a long history of, in fact, serving as the singular gender-neutral pronoun. I personally do not have any difficulty with including myself in "mankind" or being referred to with the use of an abstract "he," whereas I do mind the subject and verb disagreeing in a sentence. There are other ways of resolving issues like this, such as making everything plural:
- "A saint who has the title Fool-for-Christ is one who is known for his ..."
- to
- "Saints who have the title Fool-for-Christ are those who are known for their ..."
but this does not work in all cases. I don't mean to jump into a discussion between you and Dn. Andrew, but I wrote the original sentence in Fool-for-Christ and can provide a "female perspective" should that be useful or desired. —magda (talk) 22:20, December 10, 2005 (CST)
