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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-24-2010 @ 12:11AM
Dawn Moore said...
In most of my articles I do actually switch the pronouns around a bit. I think my gemming article is the most recent, where in one paragraph I referred to a holy priest as male and a then in another as female.
I abhor using "they" in place of he or she in an attempt to be neutral. It's not grammatically correct, but there is no neutral pronoun in our language. Using he consistently is common in a lot of writing, almost to the point it's unnoticeable. That's something that bothers me. I rarely see authors switch it up, but when they do I suspect it stands out a lot more. Since I do it, that might be why you notice it more, but I wouldn't doubt it if I do lean a little bit more towards using she all the time. Just consider it from the angle of how women feel when all they see is he, him, and his in print media.
But I'm not trying to propagate a stereotype of healers being female, and other players as male. It is a coincidence that I am female and a healer - but in my writing about healers I may occasionally remind my readers I am a woman. I don't plan on conforming to conventional and superfluous cultural standards that imply the overarching usage of he/him/his is a neutral, non-confrontational way to write.