He is a she. There's a big picture of her, and she's called Stacey. Or did you not notice as the page doesn't have a pink background and it's about stats?
Then again, I didn't pick out the entire sidebar.
I had a hard time finding her name on the page even looking for it. It's not a signature, but tucked away nearer to the top between the blog title and more social networking noise, in light grey text on white background, in a completely separate column from the profile pic.
Perhaps if Facebook like buttons alone didn't out-number her name 4:1 (whether or not you count the comments) it'd be easier to notice these things...
If you would like to change the way the language works, hostile personal attacks are more likely to turn people against your cause.
It says "by Stacy" at the top of the article and there's a picture of her next to it. Being unsure of the authorship after reading it would seem lazy at best.
From Merriam-Webster:
1: prejudice or discrimination based on sex; especially : discrimination against women
2: behavior, conditions, or attitudes that foster stereotypes of social roles based on sex
I can understand an argument that the author of the comment said "he" because of some assumption that anyone doing stats must be a man. However I'm making the counterargument that using "he" is a standard default in English and that such usage is not sexist, but rather as a result of how the English language is used.
You are saying that using he as a default isn't sexist because it is a default.
However saying that a default position is a default position tells us very little indeed and nothing whatsoever about if that default position is sexist.
Honestly, I caught myself using "he" several times writing this response but went back and "refactored" my response. Does the fact that I use "he" automatically make me a sexist? No. That's just how everyone around me spoke English and thus how I learned to use it.
But you didn't use the word she in any of your response, so how could have you have needed to refactor anything from he? You might make at least some effort to keep your story straight from one sentence to the next. Honestly.
Also, you have a sexist learned behaviour as part of your language, you know about this and can decide yourself if it is worth giving a shit about. Learning the behaviour doesn't make you sexist, but not giving a shit about it might.
I refactored all usages of "he" to be completely neutral. There is no "he" or "she" being used, except when referencing the word itself. Perhaps you should think critically before insinuating someone else is a liar. Honestly.
> Also, you have a sexist learned behaviour as part of your language, you know about this and can decide yourself if it is worth giving a shit about. Learning the behaviour doesn't make you sexist, but not giving a shit about it might.
I guess I must be a sexist since I use the word "he" by default since my native tongue doesn't have a gender neutral singular pronoun. Sorry for being a lazy bastard and taking the "he" shortcut instead of the other linguistically cumbersome routes English offers to be gender neutral and thus not an irredeemable sexist.
And it's not that hard to just use "they" instead.
I don't quite follow. Are you saying that, by using "he" everywhere, I'm going to subconsciously exclude women?
> And it's not that hard to just use "they" instead
I cannot speak for anyone but myself but, being a native English speaker, using "they" to refer to a single person sounds wrong. I understand the tendency to use it given the lack of a gender-neutral singular pronoun but it doesn't change how grammatically incorrect it sounds to me.
Yeah, well the person you are replying to, they may disagree.
often used with an indefinite third person singular antecedent <everyone knew where they stood — E. L. Doctorow> <nobody has to go to school if they don't want to — N. Y. Times>
Speak for yourself.
I've just gotten through with about 16 years of English courses, with professors who are most certainly not in agreement with your opinion. Hell, I remember having a German professor correct a student for using "they" incorrectly.
Just because a large newspaper uses it doesn't make it any more correct. Many people say "irregardless" and I am sure I could find the usage of it in a major publication, but it doesn't make the word any less illogical.