Hi, Funnily enough, I already commented on this sort of thing and I tend to agree with Han-Wen on this. I don't think that it is unfair to pick a suitable gender depending on the situation. And I quote from my previous email on the subject:
=================================================== The trouble is, determining a one-size-fits-all rule for this kind of think can be too restrictive. For example, when describing old professional music engravers, he/she would be, almost without exception, male. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong. Referring to "her" would be inappropriate and silly. =================================================== Further, if we were writing articles on child birth, I think that phrases like "his cervix" rather make the "politically correct" strategy silly. <snigger> You're never going to please everybody all of the time, and to be quite honest, contrary to what a lot of media commentators say on this subject, I don't think many people take offence at this sort of thing and if they do, they really should get a life... Regards, Ralph > > I think that hand-engraving dates from the time that women did not > > participate much in professional life > > Indeed, so wouldn't using 'he' instead of 'she' here not be extra > unkind to the [very few] women who were engravers? I'm not sure there > were none. > > >, so I find this sentence rather awkward. -------------------------------------- [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.tribaldata.co.uk ...or see what I do in my spare time: www.skelmanthorpeband.org -------------------------------------- "Man who shoot off mouth... expect to lose face." --------- Tribal Data Solutions has moved, please visit our website for more details http://www.tribaldata.co.uk. This e-mail and any attachments are confidential and are sent on the basis of our copyright, e-mail and security policy which can be inspected by visiting http://www.tribaldata.co.uk/policies.asp. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender and delete this message. Thank you. ----------- _______________________________________________ lilypond-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-devel
