Mueen Nawaz <m.n### [at] ieeeorg> wrote:
> Warp wrote:
> >   IMO "he" is a perfectly valid gender-neutral third-person pronoun.
> > IMO anyone who constructs those artificial "he/she" or whatever
> > monstrosities is just being ridiculously over-PC.

>         I'm fine with it if you're fine when others use "she" instead.

  I'm sorry, but to my ear "she" explicitly states that we are talking
about a female, while "he", when in proper context, doesn't necessarily
do so.

  It's similar to the word "man". It can either be used to specifically
refer to a male, or it can be used as a generic term for person/human,
depending on the context, such as in the phrase "where no man has gone
before". Even though the word "man" is used there, it's not referring to
a specific gender, but to humanity in general.

  (If someone said "where no woman has gone before" it would be quite
clearly specifically referring to female persons.)

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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