Re: Gender classes, which to use?

Sally Caves wrote:

> It's usually (at least in the languages I know and that's not saying
> much) the sex that is considered different that gets the different
> marking, as in our tiresome discussions of the "genderless" "he": "he"
> and "man" mean both he/she and man/woman because the one is considered
> the default and the other the exception.  Sorry to raise this "feminist"
> perspective, but there it is.
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.

Proffessions endings in -o seams natural to have the femenine ending in -a,
like:
  el arquitecto - la arquitecta
  el ingeniero - la ingeniera

And some consonant ending dictionary/masculine forms:
  el profesor - la profesora

First proffesional women fought for their titles to have a femenine form
nothing like
  "El ingeniero Mari'a Rodri'guez" or
  "La ingeniero Mari'a Rodri'guez" but
  "La ingeniera Mari'a Rodri'guez".

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

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).

-- Carlos Th