man is not an inclusive word

While we’re on the sub­ject of whether ‘man’ is an inclus­ive term, and whether we’re being too sens­it­ive when we object to it, let’s con­sider the single most per­vas­ive use of the term “man” or “men”. It’s one most people see a great many times in the course of the day.

Walk down the hall where you work, folks. Some­where there are two little rooms full of plumb­ing. One says ‘Men’ on the door. Go ahead, somebody, tell me that includes ‘women’. Try and con­vince me it’s an inclus­ive term when the most com­mon use is to exclude.

Repe­ti­tion makes famili­ar­ity. When “men” means Keep Out: This Means You, and every­body knows it, think­ing gets conditioned.

Sorry about the length, but the sub­ject has me pissed off.

Vir­ginia Bemis @ http://userpages.umbc.edu/~korenman/wmst/inclusive_lang.html