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"Her/his", anyone?

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mrmhead On March 27, 2024




NE, Ohio
#2New Post! Jul 01, 2015 @ 13:07:43
You're reading too much into the order of letters.
It didn't even register to me, until you pointed it out that the title is Hers / His.

I believe in the past, at least in the English language, the male pronoun was accepted as the gender neutral in the appropriate contexts. Then some radical feminists got offended and now we have to write his/her, ..etc to appease them
There is also the whining about history, and manhole covers, and on and on.

My take on all this ... Lighten Up Francis!
chaski On March 28, 2024
Stalker





Tree at Floydgirrl's Window,
#4New Post! Jul 01, 2015 @ 15:17:11
I am not aware of any prohibitions against writing "her/his" or "her/him". I could be wrong. Of course it would actually be more grammatically correct to write or say "her or his" or "her or him", but we live in a society that like to shorten written things into contractions.

People used to write "he" and now write "he or she" or "he/she"...etc...it is a growth or evolution of language thing.

If I may, let me suggest or recommend that you take the lead and start a trend of using the alphabet as the guide for listing female or male things (pronouns, nouns, etc).

Meanwhile, In Angola child and maternal mortality rates are among the highest in the world, with almost one child in five not surviving to age five, while maternal mortality is 610 per 100,000 live births.

[And I do apologize for being a bit flippant about your topic.]
DiscordTiger On December 04, 2021
The Queen of Random

Administrator




Emerald City, United States (g
#5New Post! Jul 01, 2015 @ 17:06:08
I've also seen s/he when space is an issue. Either word or character count.

As long as it's consistent it doesn't really bother me either way.
Electric_Banana On February 05, 2024




, New Zealand
#6New Post! Jul 01, 2015 @ 18:54:22
We have a frustrating issue in New Zealand.

"Black" is deemed in-appropriate here. Non-Caucasians in NZ really don't even like to be referred to as "Brown."

Back in America however it was just accepted that documents asking Black/White/Hispanic were in no way meant to be offensive and presented that way for simplicity.

There are many various races amongst non-Caucasians and it's impossible to specifically pinpoint each one with the proper associated race title.

Like witnessing an African male "You saw a "White" guy dive from the building? Well what kind of "White" are we talking about? French? British? Sweedish? Dutch?..."

It's impossible to tailor a standard that is going to make everyone happy and we have to draw lines somewhere.

If someone is creating the applications themselves; I'm sure there would be no problem if they were to enter "Hers" before "His" in the document. Otherwise rather than slowing down all of Earth's production to edit new typos we didn't need it's best that people stop every now and again and realize the world is not centered around their specific race, gender, etc. and so often times there is no offense or supremacy intended.
NNewt84 On July 19, 2018




Adelaide, Australia
#7New Post! Jul 01, 2015 @ 22:43:01
@chaski Said

I am not aware of any prohibitions against writing "her/his" or "her/him". I could be wrong. Of course it would actually be more grammatically correct to write or say "her or his" or "her or him", but we live in a society that like to shorten written things into contractions.

People used to write "he" and now write "he or she" or "he/she"...etc...it is a growth or evolution of language thing.

If I may, let me suggest or recommend that you take the lead and start a trend of using the alphabet as the guide for listing female or male things (pronouns, nouns, etc).

Meanwhile, In Angola child and maternal mortality rates are among the highest in the world, with almost one child in five not surviving to age five, while maternal mortality is 610 per 100,000 live births.

[And I do apologize for being a bit flippant about your topic.]


Well, if you're saying
I should worry more about third world issues, then that's actually a legitimate point. So I'd just like to state that I donate to the IWDA, an organisation that supports women in third world countries.
chaski On March 28, 2024
Stalker





Tree at Floydgirrl's Window,
#8New Post! Jul 01, 2015 @ 22:53:15
@NNewt84 Said

Well, if you're saying
I should worry more about third world issues, then that's actually a legitimate point. So I'd just like to state that I donate to the IWDA, an organisation that supports women in third world countries.



I was just being a "d***".

For me the she/he thing is a small matter. But, it is important to you, so go with it... no need to pay too much attention to me.
restoreone On January 30, 2022




, Ohio
#9New Post! Jul 01, 2015 @ 23:03:35
@NNewt84 Said

Now, if you read the title, I know what you're probably thinking. And no, I'm not a radical feminist. I don't believe in female supremacy over men. I believe in equality for everyone, regardless of sex, race, sexual orientation, handedness and similar criteria. I guess you could say I'm an egalitarian, then. I often identify as a feminist, although I'm certainly no radical. As for the title of this forum, well, I'll get to what I mean by that.

Every once in a while, I see the phrase "his/her" or "his or her" written somewhere, whether it be on the Internet, a legal document, or otherwise. While I understand that this is trying to be gender inclusive, and I wholeheartedly agree with their intentions, there is one detail that really bugs me: why are masculine pronouns always listed first?

And once again, I must stress that, as a man, I don't believe in female supremacy. (Yes, there exist male misandrists, but I'm not one of them.) For me, it's more to do with alphabetical order, i.e. "he/she" is fine because "he" precedes "she", but "his/her" or "him/her" are not. Whenever I write, I always ensure to list things alphabetically, to avoid any unfortunate implications. (And yes, I also use "their", in case you were wondering. I tend to alternate between "her/his" and "their", depending on whichever I feel like using.)

Now, I at least partly if a young boy writes "his/her", since, as humans, we tend to be self-centred and view our own demographics as the main ones. (When I was younger, I always thought of my home country, Australia, as being at the "centre of the world", so to speak - but as it turns out, the United States is probably the closest thing to that.) But it disheartens me when a girl or woman writes it, because I'm sure most girls don't want to be sidelined as the "second sex", if you will. As a philogynist, I always try to empathise with women and girls, to try and see things from their point of view, to ask myself, "If I were a girl, how would I feel about/react to/want to see this?" Well, I probably wouldn't want to be listed second for no other reason than being a girl. To me, this just feels like a big slap in the face to all the bright young girls who feel confident about themselves. (Also, if you're a girl or woman reading this, feel free to correct me on anything I got wrong or overlooked, since I have no experience of being female, and thus it's highly likely I missed something.)

Now, I'm not the kind of person who forces their opinions onto everyone, but rather I like to express my views, expecting someone to agree with me of their own volition, and listen to other people's opinions in return, and try to see things from their point of view. However, I simply have to ask: am I really the only person in the world who ever thought of saying "her/his" instead of "his/her"? It's one thing to hold a minority opinion, but it's another to hold an opinion that's less than 1 per mille. Again, I'm not trying to shove my views down your throats here, I'm just asking for anyone who willingly agrees with me to step forward and make themselves known. I always thought most girls at a young age would write "her/his", because, again, children tend to think they're at the centre of the world, so it wouldn't surprise me if little girls view their own gender as the "first sex", and boys as the "second". (And once again, I refer you to the Australia example I mentioned last paragraph. But still, if you're a woman, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.) However, I recently did a Google search on "her/his", and it seems that nobody, and I mean nobody, ever thought of using that term.

I'm also not trying to blame this all on a hypothetical "patriarchy" or anything that radical feminists spew out. If anything, this is more an artefact of a patriarchy that vanished a long time ago. (And yes, I'm aware of our dark and troubled history, so please don't remind me.) The best way I can explain this, is that it's like when a restaurant closes. While it cannot allow any new customers to enter, the old customers who entered earlier are welcome to stay until they've finished eating and paid the bill. It'd be rude to just kick them out right at closing time, right? So, the point I'm trying to make is, there do still exist these remnants of what was a terrible, terrible time for women, and they're slowly dying out - but someday, we might just get there. Personally, I think it's more likely that the radical feminists will take over the world and enslave mankind; but there do exist decent people in this world: some who do their part, some who should, and others who have more important things to worry about. And while this particular topic may seem minor, I just worry that it may subliminally affect girls in the long run, and only further cement them as the "second sex", and it just eats me up to think about it.

Well, that's about all I have to say for now. Feel free to voice your opinion, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask and I will try my best to answer.

You can look for the postive or negative in all things in life. Here is the postive for he she. The greatest honor is to protect someone 6 and be trusted to do so. Following is watching their 6. I try to look for the postive.
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