Re: OT: Conlangea Dreaming

On Tue, 10 Oct 2000, Nik Taylor wrote:

> Jeff Jones wrote:
> > To me, "it" suggests an inanimate object, and you seem to be rather
> > animate!
>
> Indeed, even animals are usually referred to by gendered pronouns.  It's
> interesting the way that the two sides of the abortion debate use
> pronouns.  Pro-abortion people tend to use "it" for the fetus, while
> anti-abortion people tend to use "she" for the fetus.
Huh--hadn't noticed that one.  I use "it" for babies as well as fetuses,
or possibly for annoying brats of indeterminate sex (I'm horrible with
small children).  :-/

For the record, I'm ambivalently anti-abortion.  Reading 20 essays on the
morality or lack thereof of abortion left me even more confused than I
began with.

YHL