Mariah Joyce
There is a dangerous trend sweeping the nation: using ‘she/her/hers’ as generic pronouns. In classrooms across America, young women are being fed the incendiary notion that they are just as important as men; that they, too, matter. Obviously, this is a feminist plot, and it must be stopped.
In sixth grade, I started to notice that many of the texts I read in English or history dealt with women in one of two ways: either they went to great lengths to explain why women were naturally evil, inferior or subordinate, or they simply never mentioned women at all. I’m honestly not sure which I prefer; the ire directed at my sex is obviously not appreciated, but the complete lack of acknowledgement is somehow more damaging. If, as many illustrious authors believe, my gender is solely responsible for the introduction of evil into the world (you’re welcome), at least we played an important, if dubious, role in history. Time after time, however, the word ‘man’ is used in every example, the pronoun ‘he’ is used in every possible instance. Implicit in this erasure of women is the idea that women are insignificant.
In a class last semester, after reading the word ‘he’ for the 23rd time in a text, I had the audacity to raise my hand and ask what the author’s thoughts were on the role of women. I was met with blank stares and the slow, condescending explanation that in this instance, ‘he’ is a gender-neutral pronoun. Well, I hate to break it to you, folks, but no, it really isn’t.
English doesn’t have a gender-neutral pronoun (at least not an officially recognized one), and there is no earthly reason for a male pronoun to be the default. By the time they get to high school, young women will likely already have been confronted with slut-shaming, catcalling and rape apology; I see no reason why we should also have to fight a battle for linguistic equality.
So here’s my proposal: use feminine pronouns. Switch off your pronouns. You’re writing a paper, and you need to give a hypothetical example — say ‘she’ instead of ‘he’! Adding that little letter ‘s’ 50 percent of the time can make a world of difference to your readers. Representation matters. Not seeing my gender represented in one document is no big deal; encountering references to the evils and shortcomings of women in one book has no lasting impact on me. However, I have encountered some incarnation of these ideas in every class I’ve taken for the past nine years, and I’m here to tell you that it’s starting to take a toll.
When authors use only masculine pronouns, they communicate that only men play an important role in the topic of their discussion. If they were discussing, say, prostate cancer, this would be a reasonable thing to do. When they are discussing, say, the governance of a state in which women make up over 50 percent of the population and still refuse to use feminine pronouns, as our own Constitution does, it starts to look a whole lot less reasonable. In the constitution, male pronouns are used a grand total of 38 times; female pronouns get a whopping zero mentions.
Being conscientious of the pronouns you use is a minor change that can have an enormous impact on gender equality in this country. Language can be a powerful vehicle for social change, and making the minor adjustment of gender-inclusive language can have a lasting positive impact on your readers. It communicates to the men and women reading your work that, contrary to popular opinion, women also have valuable contributions to make. And you can do it all by adding one tiny letter – so why wouldn’t you?