Today's musings thus far
Gooooooooood Morning Vietnam! (What a great movie, btw)
Umm...it's not morning any more, neither am I in Vietnam. It is a good day in State College, though.
I had fun inLinguistics this morning. We were talking about gender issues in language. Like how in English, when you refer to collective nouns, you use a masculine pronoun (i.e. "Everyone should bring his book."). We were basically just discussing whether such things imply that English speakers are inherently sexist because of their language, or if the language itself is sexist, et cetera. It was an interesting discussion, though the people in my class seemed bound and determined to make some sort of sexist argument. I find such things very foolish. How a person speaks has no bearing on how they think of people. Following grammar rules does not make me a misogynist. I don't know. It's just like the whole actor/actress, flight attendant/stewardess, firefighter/fireman discussion (which we also touched on). It's just a generic term. And in many cases the fact that these generic terms imply a certain gender is perfectly valid. My father's a fireman. I've met a lot of firemen. I think I've met one female firefighter. It's not like there are no female firefighters, but the fact is that they aren't as common. It's not sexism, it's the facts.
Umm...other than that, I'll have to get back to you later. Lunchtime!
Love you!
Umm...it's not morning any more, neither am I in Vietnam. It is a good day in State College, though.
I had fun inLinguistics this morning. We were talking about gender issues in language. Like how in English, when you refer to collective nouns, you use a masculine pronoun (i.e. "Everyone should bring his book."). We were basically just discussing whether such things imply that English speakers are inherently sexist because of their language, or if the language itself is sexist, et cetera. It was an interesting discussion, though the people in my class seemed bound and determined to make some sort of sexist argument. I find such things very foolish. How a person speaks has no bearing on how they think of people. Following grammar rules does not make me a misogynist. I don't know. It's just like the whole actor/actress, flight attendant/stewardess, firefighter/fireman discussion (which we also touched on). It's just a generic term. And in many cases the fact that these generic terms imply a certain gender is perfectly valid. My father's a fireman. I've met a lot of firemen. I think I've met one female firefighter. It's not like there are no female firefighters, but the fact is that they aren't as common. It's not sexism, it's the facts.
Umm...other than that, I'll have to get back to you later. Lunchtime!
Love you!