Re: Pronouns (please bear with me)

[John Darrington]

On Thu, Mar 05, 2020 at 12:55:44PM -0800, Per Bothner wrote:
     
     It is not really an issue of being offended, but perpetuating stereotypes.
     Consider the statement:
     
        When you see your doctor, he will tell you what to do.
     
     When people hear "he" they unconsciously visualize a man in their mind.
     This strengthens the subconscious idea in people's mind that "a doctor" is
     (by default, at least) male.
     
     You can argue all you want that is not what you intend, and that people
     should not be making that inference that by "he" you mean "a man".
     
     But they do.  That's how the human brain works.
     
     A little short-term discomfort until people get used to "When you see your 
doctor,
     they will tell you what to do" seems a small price to actually make English
     *more* precise - by removing incorrect pseudo-precision.

This would make it less precise, because the arity would be wrong.

If the patient expects to meet a man, but the doctor is, in fact, a
woman (or vici-versa) then no real harm is done.   However if you say
"they" then its quite conceivable that the patient will expect a whole
hoard of doctors, feel initimiated by the thought of being examined
by all of them, cancel the appointment, and thus succumb to an illness
which the (singular) doctor could easily have treated.

So I think implying the wrong sex is a lesser evil than implying the 
wrong arity.

If you really must avoid male pronouns, and no gender neutral one is
suitable, just say "she" and I guarantee that nobody will complain about 
that.