Politically Correct language goes overboard:

[Barnabas]

Originally posted by Elok
The gender-neutral nouns are probably a pain in the rear for the French, Spanish, etc., too, but we ain't gonna change 'em. Inanimate objects have no gender. People do. Deal with it. Grr.

It makes things easier actually, one less thing to think about.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Last Conformist
Y'know, one could follow a few centuries of English usage and use "they" as the epicene 3rd sg pronoun.

:vomit:

[Q Classic]

I don't see why we can't just assign to everyone, "it". Most humans aren't really actual persons, anyway.

[Jon Miller]

I am fine with Lesbian and Gays... I think that there is a place for Bi (although I don't think that fundamentally Bi people exist).

I think that all transgendered should see a shrink.

JM

[Zkribbler]

Re: Politically Correct language goes overboard:

Originally posted by Sirotnikov
Ze: Gender neutral for he or she. As Mary Boenke writes on the PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) Web site: “When talking with Leslie Feinberg, noted transgender author, I asked Leslie which pronouns to use. Ze shrugged hir shoulders and said ze didn’t care.”

The tried this back in the late 60's, only then the word was "e." "I talked with e yesterday." --It didn't work then, either.

[Richelieu]

We can't understand why you people have such problems. We do just fine addressing all other (lesser) people.

[Nubclear]

USAGE NOTE Traditionally, many writers have used man and words derived from it to designate any or all of the human race regardless of sex. In fact, this is the oldest use of the word. In Old English the principal sense of man was “a human,” and the words wer and wyf (or wæpman and wifman) were used to refer to “a male human” and “a female human” respectively. But in Middle English man displaced wer as the term for “a male human,” while wyfman (which evolved into present-day woman) was retained for “a female human.”

[Lorizael]

Originally posted by Ari Rahikkala
It's not about political correctness, it's about being able to succinctly say what you mean.

No, it is about political correctness, but it just so happens this would clear up a good deal of ambiguity in communication, too. If this movement were picked up by any group even a little bit more mainstream than the LGBT, it might actually get somewhere.

[Jon Miller]

My position has always been that ambiguity gives power.

JM

[Lorizael]

Not when you're a technical writer. Then it just means your job gets annoying.

[General Ludd]

I usually use "they" as gender neutral language. It's only downfall is that it can be taken to be plural in many circumstances.

[lord of the mark]

as someone who occasionally has need to stammer in Yiddish, I would find Ze for third person (rather than second person) too confusing.

Ze ist a schlecte kinde!!!!!!

[Ninot]

I've heard and used GLBT before

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by General Ludd
I usually use "they" as gender neutral language. It's only downfall is that it can be taken to be plural in many circumstances.

Many? Are you sure it isn't all circumstances?

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by General Ludd
I usually use "they" as gender neutral language. It's only downfall is that it can be taken to be plural in many circumstances.