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From: Dmitry A. Soshnikov on 16 Jun 2010 15:37
On 16.06.2010 21:57, Scott Sauyet wrote:

<snip>

>
> It's definitely considered wrong to use a gender known to be incorrect
> for a partially anonymous individual. This feels quite wrong: "If any
> of the players on the U.S. Men's World Cup team doesn't like it, she
> can complain to the authorities." So does this: "An expectant mother
> can expect his bulging midriff to attract attention."

Yeah, I was confusing with this too.

But for, say,
> an anonymous user of a website, either "when the user moves her
> mouse..." or "when the user moves his mouse..." would be widely
> accepted.
>

OK. So how at the end it is preferable to call "this third-party man"?
"She" for me sounds really odd yet :P

Dmitry.
From: Scott Sauyet on 16 Jun 2010 15:56
Dmitry A. Soshnikovwrote:
> OK. So how at the end it is preferable to call "this third-party man"?
> "She" for me sounds really odd yet :P

I'm not parsing your question, I'm afraid.

In English there is little distinction between "when the user moves
her mouse..." and "when the user moves his mouse..." Either one
sounds fine to most native speakers.

If you exclusively use "he" and "him" in these circumstances, you will
conform with what was the historic norm but will also run the risk of
offending the sensibilities of some feminists.

-- Scott

From: Richard Cornford on 16 Jun 2010 19:33
Dmitry A. Soshnikov wrote:
> On 16.06.2010 21:57, Scott Sauyet wrote:
<snip>
>> It's definitely considered wrong to use a gender known to be
>> incorrect for a partially anonymous individual. This feels
>> quite wrong: "If any of the players on the U.S. Men's World
>> Cup team doesn't like it, she can complain to the authorities."
>> So does this: "An expectant mother can expect his bulging
>> midriff to attract attention."
>
> Yeah, I was confusing with this too.
>
>> But for, say, an anonymous user of a website, either "when
>> the user moves her mouse..." or "when the user moves his
>> mouse..." would be widely accepted.
>
> OK. So how at the end it is preferable to call "this third-party
> man"? "She" for me sounds really odd yet :P

It is possible to speak of the (or a) user, programmer, or whatever, and
then tell of their actions/behaviour without any need to imply their
gender (at least in English).

Richard.

From: Scott Sauyet on 16 Jun 2010 20:58
Richard Cornford wrote:
> It is possible to speak of the (or a) user, programmer, or whatever, and
> then tell of their actions/behaviour without any need to imply their
> gender (at least in English).

Yes, but often that involves making awkward compromises in your prose,
such as mismatching singular nouns with plural pronouns. :-)

-- Scott
From: Dmitry A. Soshnikov on 17 Jun 2010 06:50
On 17.06.2010 3:33, Richard Cornford wrote:

<snip>

> It is possible to speak of the (or a) user, programmer, or whatever, and
> then tell of their actions/behaviour without any need to imply their
> gender (at least in English).

I see, with using always in a speech "a user" and "the user". Also, it's
a bit long and repeating the same word in a sentence (or nearest
sentences -- i.e. which go one after another) isn't so good writing (and
possibly, talking) stylistic. At least in Russian.

E.g. this is preferable (but not required and preferable in particular
cases):

"If the user do that ... But if he makes other thing, then the user...".

than that (although, this is also completely normal in Russian):

"If the user do that ... But if the user makes other thing, then the
user...".

Using always the same word sounds a bit "technically", like describing
some thing in the specification.

But to avoid political correctness stuff, yeah, I think the full "a
user"/"the user" is good also.

Dmitry.
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