> Know what I hate? People who don't realize that "he" is the neuter pronoun in the English language. I don't know why I suddenly thought of this. But it bugs me.
>
> In school, I wrote a paper for my sociology class, using "he" throughout, as that is gramatically correct. My professor actually told me I should change my wording to "he or she" in every instance. It is degrading to females, apparently, to use proper grammar.
>
> Disney movies are also degrading to females, according to her. We didn't get along very well.
>
> ~Mina "I know that's terribly relevant and all" moon

If you ask me, there's no right answer. Therefore, there can be no wrong answer. I've read authors that have decided to randomly insert "she" as the gender neutral pronoun randomly, and alternate back to he-that just seems way too awkward and forced for me.

If someone thinks that she or he can use "him or her" without his or her language becoming too awkward, they're welcome to it. It's just always seemed too unneccessarily long to me. All the professors here and faculty go out of their way to say he or she to avoid offending anyone. I think it's less of a hassle in verbal speech... I just expect a lot more berevity and focus in writing.

In most editorials and articles I've read, it seems like they just generally try to avoid the problem, by using plurals to make their writing gender neutral. It limits their possibilities somewhat, but it's bland enough not to offend anyone.

I really think taking the classical approach and using he as the gender neutral is the best way to go, but I suspect as the years go by that may eventually fall out of usage... it's happened to a few other rules of English grammar.

Mark"I actually hadn't heard about the subjunctive until I studied Latin."N