Hi Christian,
Christian Perrier wrote:
"The world is made up of both men and women. Please use gender-neutral
constructs in your writing. This is not Political Correctness, this is
showing respect to all mankind."
And in fact, I'd like to lose "mankind", too, and replace it with
"humanity" or "people".
Is this because it contains "man" or because this is a better English
word for what I would write in French "Humanité", which represents the
community of men and women around the world?
It's because it contains "man". In modern English "mankind" is often
percieved as having an emphasis on men and a corresponding demphasis on
women. It's a little like words such as "chairman" etc, which have also
in the past been used to refer to a man or a woman. Using "people"
rather than "mankind" avoids the (potential) issue neatly, and still in
good English.
I'm sure that someone else can come up with a suitable link to
investigate, if you are interested in reading about that stuff. There
are several different viewpoints about.
Helen.
