Re: Gender

On Thu, 6 Dec 2001, Roger Mills wrote:

> >En réponse à Tristan Alexander McLeay <anstouh@...>:
> >
> >> Incidentally, I went to the zoo today and discovered that as far as
> >> I'm
> >> concerned, every animal, regardless of sex, is male in gender. It seems
> >> a
> >> very grandmother thing to do, though, as (IME) they tend to call all
> >> animals male, even if they know for a fact that it's female.
>
>
> Who is "they"?  The visitors? (Excusable-- one has to look pretty closely to
> determine the sex of many mammals, heavy fur and tails sometimes obscure the
> vital evidence) In Engl. "he" is generic, until proven otherwise.  Or the
> descriptive placards?  (inexcusable, I'd say).
No, they is grandmothers, read the last sentence again and it'll become
clear what I meant. The grandmothers are seperate from the zoo trip.

Tristan

anstouh@yahoo.com.au

War doesn't prove who's right, just who's left.
                       - BSD Games' Fortune