Re: Gender classes, which to use?

Carlos Thompson wrote:
> In Official (Academia) Spanish, the way of *not* being man chauvinist in the
> language is using the femenine forms of the words denoting proffesions, even
> if the dictionary form would sound natural.
It is becoming the opposite in English. Many people find words such as
'actress' sexist and simply use 'actor' now. The idea behind this, I
guess, is to stress the occupation, not the sex of the person or the
_differentness_ of the sex of the person involved in the profession. I
think femenine forms of ethnic names such as Jewess and Negress have
been considered politically incorrect for some time now.

> This is extent to almost any (or any) proffesion then
>   La presidenta, from el presidente, older form: la presidente
>   La juez, from el juez, older form: la juez
I thought I read that feminine forms of -e nouns (such as presidenta)
are only used in some American dialects.

> The theory is that the femenine forms are less man chauvinist (even if I
> personally believe femenine/masculine disctintion should be avoided but in
> the article if the word so allows).
I agree. :)
> -- Carlos Th