Gender Bender

Work to make your writing as gender neutral as possible. In addition to just plain ol’ being the right thing to do, it also minimizes the possibility that gender becomes your subject matter, allowing your reader to focus on what people do rather than on which sex they happen to be.                   Do: Recast singular references into plural ones. Instead of “a consumer gets his or her choice of extras” or, worse, “a consumer gets his/her choice of extras,” make it “consumers get their choice of extras.” (Worse still, “s/he gets a choice of extras.”) Eliminate personal pronouns. Not “each contestant should submit her photo” but “each contestant should submit a photo.” Use “you.” Replace “every reporter must apply for his backstage pass” with “you must apply for a backstage pass.” Substitute gender-neutral synonyms.“All NGOs have a president. He is often on a second career” becomes “All NGOs have a president. This official is often on a second career.” Refer to people by gender-neutral job titles like “firefighter,” “server” and “housekeeper” instead of “fireman,” “waitress,” and “cleaning lady.” Watch out for phrases like “no man is an island” and “every man for himself.” Not only are they double whammies – cliché and gender specific – but to make them gender neutral you have to say that no person is an island or every man and woman for himself and herself. Ugh. Avoid what are known as “false generics” – nouns and pronouns intended to apply to both men and women but that actually may be ambiguous and exclude women, like the word “chairman” (“chairperson” may sound contrived to you – it doesn’t to me – so in cases like this search for an acceptable alternative; in other words, don’t give up). For the love of God, please don’t: Alternate between genders: Using “he” three times and “she” three times in a paragraph just makes it worse. Aside from the confusion it may cause, it’s an attempt at political correctness that’s more laughable than laudable. That writers would do this sounds ridiculous, I know, but I’ve seen it. (Remember the scene in "Friends" when Phoebe looks across the courtyard and sees Chandler and Monica “doing it” and screams, "My eyes! My eyes!" That’s what it feels like to read sentence constructions like that. My eyes! My eyes!)

Comments

[Ed Schoaps]

Great tips! Also, I would refer readers to the AP Stylebook for the chairman, chairwoman listing. AP says, "Do not use chairperson unless it is an organization's formal title for an office."

[Luis Mondragon]

Great tips, thanks. I'm a translator from English to Spanish and this site is really helpful to understand more of English.
One example of this "gender-correct" writing is this one from Microsoft Messenger: "User X may not reply because HE OR SHE appears to be offline". I guess they could've chosen a better wording.