"He Retains the Advantage" - The Importance of Pronouns in Chess

"I'm just trying to read a book, and it doesn't seem like very much effort for the author to throw a nod my way every once in a while."

Ok. I'm just saying, they don't mean what you think they mean.

@19. Good post and it's good that you fight for important thing. But I think when you argue the small stuff you lose people from your side.

^^^ This idea is exactly what I was talking about here.......if 'he' and 'she' are interchangeable, I'm sure Garry Kasparov won't mind being referred to as a 'she'.......

Not that I agree with the ubiquitous male pronoun usage, but that's not quite right.  They're saying in that situation "he" isn't gender specific, not that he and she are interchangeable.

Post#25: Don't equivocate -- using "she" to mean a person whose gender you do not know, is not using "she" to mean a person you know is male :)

You're right - I know what they're trying to say, and I was being unnecessarily facetious in the last post.............I just feel like the " 'he' is universal and 'mankind' includes 'womankind' "  argument should have died off somewhere around 1978...........it's like calling a whale a 'fish' - OK, it has fins and swims in the ocean, but understandings have evolved!

Good point Alison.  It is a rare man, though, who recognizes "male privilege."

DavidChCh is correct when he says the issue is "just a matter of convention."  So was apartheid is South Africa at one time; and the religious discrimination is many countries; and denying women the vote in otherwise democratic societies.  These were all "convention" at one time.  Didn't make it right.

"Some [people] see things as they are and ask "Why?"  Others dreams things that never were and ask, "Why not?" - George Bernard Shaw

Post #28: Yes but the thing is we don't have a true pronoun that goes with a person of an unknown gender, so we don't have a "whale equivalent" if you will :)

"He" may bring up associations of males, even when we're not talking about them. Ok, and "They" will bring up associations of talking about more people, even when we aren't. The issue applies equally to either term. All we can do is forget about those associations when appropriate.

I guess "it" is too impersonal?

Look, what matters is what people mean. If a french person tells me "merci" I know they've sent me a good message, even though to me such a word sounds like a combination of pointless sounds. The words for symbolizing gratitude are different, but the overall idea we are symbolizing is the same. What difference does it make what sound/word they use to make me aware of this? Whatever works.

If I recall the German I learned in college, they use "der," "die," and "das."  These are articles for masculine, feminine, and neuter nouns.  "The girl" in German was "Das Mädchen" - neuter!

Thank you Alison, for a thoughtful and intelligent argument. I agree with you that a crucial question here is 'updating' - and chess writers should get on and do it. My preferred updating would be singular 'they/their' - and anyone whose English teacher would freak out at it should tell their (yes) English teacher to read Jane Austen, who often used singular 'they' in both her letters and her novels.

And if "merci" didn't sound like a combination of pointless sounds?  If it sounded like a word that challenged your concept of self or self worth?

As you say, words = meaning is the point.

“HMS Sheffield, the lead ship of the Type 42 class of Destroyers, was built at Vickers at Barrow, being launched in 1970 and commissioned in 1975. She was a Portsmouth based ship, as were the rest of the Type 42′s. The Sheffield had been away from home for quite some time, having been taking part in Exercise Spring Train on her way home from an Arabian Gulf Patrol when she was diverted down south.

She had been using her satellite communications, which rendered her Typ3 965 radar inoperable for a short time. Sheffield was silent, until the anonymous message was heard ‘ Sheffield is hit’. She was the first Royal Navy ship to be sunk in action since the Second World War.

In May 1983, the next of kin of the Sheffield dead were taken by helicopter to the place where she sank so they could cast wreaths into the sea.”

People are "he" things are "she."

Got it.

In the Kriegsmarine, the Captain of the battleship Bismark requested the crew use the male pronoun "he" when referring to the vessel.

Boats are she, I'm not sure about all things. Most would be it.

I have no real problem with a singular they. Not correct but a fair solution to the 'problem'.

Some of those aspects of family law are changing.  In many countries, the military service is voluntary; but in a place like Israel, females serve along side their male counterparts.

I would like to think that we are headed toward a more egalitarian society.  Would you agree that would be progress?

There are probably greater injustices done to women than using a gender neutral "he".

I'm not sure I understand. If "he" is used to mean "male or female," the message, "male or female" has been sent. The "challenge of self worth" if I understand you correctly only comes in if you don't look at the message sent (in this case "male or female") but only on one particular usage of the term ("male").

If someone tells me I'm awesome, I don't care what sounds they are using for it (even if their word for it is "sucks" ). I get the same "aura of awesomeness" that I would get if someone used the word "awesome" to tell me it.