The Naming of This Blog

I just wrote a whole first entry, then decided it sucked. I'm going to try and make this the easiest on you as possible, so here it goes.

Reasons for not naming the blog right away?

1. I can't name something if I don't know its inherent nature yet.

2. It would be amazing if readers could read along as I discover its purpose.

3. I would spend way too long trying to figure out a name.

Today's TOPIC of Interest.

Sexism in our language?

According to my Psychology textbook from last semester, when people use the word "he" or "him" in a sentence, it encourages a slight bias to picture the male gender. Now, this makes sense, right? I mean, if I say "He went to the bathroom", then the reader assumes a male went to the bathroom. However, it is not so simple!!

In our language, (and by our I mean mine which is English), he can represent both a male and a female. Because we have no neutral term to describe him/her, technically in a sentence that simply refers to a person, in a choice between him/her, the writer is supposed to use "him."

They talked in my textbook (Hockenbury&Hockenbury if you're interested), about the fact that when both men and women were asked to picture a person described in a sentence using the neutral word "they", they would more often picture a male than a female. Which suggests a bias.

This doesn't mean the world is going to fall apart, but I thought you should know. If you wanna email me, I'm at the.yearling@gmail.com. Tell me all your opinions on this! But, in the meantime, I'll be trying to counter this trend by simply replacing "he", with "she".

How about 'dem apples? : As a man thinketh in her heart, so is she. -James Allen