Read the rest of the thread please. You’re rehashing old lines that have been discussed already.
Someone else makes the argument that’s it’s the context that makes it gender neutral. I pointed out that he/him were, in the context of instruction manuals, used as a catch all term, and asked if they believed he/him are gender neutral.
I’ll make it real easy: in the before times we used he/him as a default term to reference people, then we realised he/him is a gendered term and not suitable as a default way to reference people [2]. Fast forward to the now time: some people use dude as a default term, but now people are learning dude is a gendered term[1]…
The 1 and 2 are pointing out 1 everyone agreed dude was gendered barring this one, apparently magical, context. And 2 he/him was used in manuals as the default.
My argument is that the context isn’t magical, and we’re just repeating history.
I added more context, my nazi quoting old man still heads his letter “Dear Sirs” do you believ Sir is gender neutral? He knows he might be addressing a woman… Doesn’t give a shit. He’s using ‘dear sirs’ to directly address someone: addressed to manager of bank, headed dear sirs. Is that the magical context that makes you believe sirs is gender neutral? I think it might be. Do you now believe sirs is gender neutral, or are we perhaps just repeating history?
Read the rest of the thread please. You’re rehashing old lines that have been discussed already.
Someone else makes the argument that’s it’s the context that makes it gender neutral. I pointed out that he/him were, in the context of instruction manuals, used as a catch all term, and asked if they believed he/him are gender neutral.
The 1 and 2 are pointing out 1 everyone agreed dude was gendered barring this one, apparently magical, context. And 2 he/him was used in manuals as the default.
My argument is that the context isn’t magical, and we’re just repeating history.
I added more context, my nazi quoting old man still heads his letter “Dear Sirs” do you believ Sir is gender neutral? He knows he might be addressing a woman… Doesn’t give a shit. He’s using ‘dear sirs’ to directly address someone: addressed to manager of bank, headed dear sirs. Is that the magical context that makes you believe sirs is gender neutral? I think it might be. Do you now believe sirs is gender neutral, or are we perhaps just repeating history?