Common Speaking, November 1981, volume 1 number 1

pronouns ... can be fun

Trivial and unnecessary, ungrammatical, ugly, difficult, and
unpronounceable. These are the complaints raised against attempts
to demasculinize the English pronouns.

Take the “unnecessary” class first. Man includes human, they (who?)
say and him includes her. Yup, includes. We are part of a category
which names them and includes us. When man first descended from
the trees, she formed a nomadic society. Right. Why not use the
generic she and claim that it includes men? Tradition rears his ugly
head.

Trivial. This is an easy charge to counter. If it is trivial then why the hell
raise such a fuss over an attempt to change such a minor usage? If it is
trivial to you, then please accede to my request, because it certainly
isn't trivial to me.

The ugly argument is essentially one of grammatics, which use and
Official sanction could to some degree change. “When one eats alion
they get sick” is now in several dictionaries as an accepted form of the
grammar.

He or she is considered to be too long. While time is certainly of the
essence and if you're going to catch the day you'd better start soon
lest the early worm escape you, no three letters extra isn’t too much.
But better than that would be s/he. This alternative gets called
unpronounceable. Please read the following sentence aloud. Dr. &
Mrs. Blank’s et co. Ltd.,est. 1874 Frankly, | think we could handle s/he.

A friend suggests consistent use of the generic she. This, | think,
should be viewed as a temporary method , useful as a consciousness
raising device, but purely interim. | don’t think he thinks so.

And a final alternative.

“Where did that bug go?”
SMASH.
“| got co.”

Co? A new word meaning him or her and the possessive, very simply,
is co's. Co is especially useful for discreetly inquiring about a friend of
unspecified gender without forcing the interested party to make
assumptions. Objections raised to co are: It's too difficult, it could
never work, too new, take too long to learn... | lived with people
using it, and within two weeks the above dialogue about the ever-
present mosquitoes came from my mouth. It's not that tough.

But, here we come to what is practical. Professors probably won't
yet respond well to co. And using generic she in class can earn some
caustic looks and sarcasms directed at "These Modern Feminists.” S/he
is probably safest and useful and easy for now and for here. But it's still
fun to write: to study properly, a person should be seated upright at
her desk.

COMMON SPEAKING would like to hear people's responses on which
professors do what and reactions in class, and to publish letters
informing each other on specific sexist and non-sexist attitudes on

Ongoing Interests

National: The New States Rights
Anti-Abortion Constitutional
Amendment was introduced on
the House floor on October 5 by
Senator R. Hatch. , Additional
hearings were held on October
14 and 19, and more will be held
on November 4, 5, 12, and 16.
Testimony or statements can be
entered into the public record by
sending them to: Senator Hatch,
108 Russell Bldg., Washington,
D.C. 20510. The Women’s Center

should be receiving a copy of this.

bill soon for anyone interested in
reading it.

State: Everyone who got
involved in opposing the Abortion
Control Act, either by attending
the public hearings and rally in
Philadelphia, or by writing letters,
will be glad to hear that the bill
was defeated in committee by a
vote of 13-141. However, Freind
and Cunningham are now
considering various parlia-
mentary procedures which might
allow them to bring the bill to fhe
House floor despite its defeat in
committee. Alternatively, since a
vote against the bill in the House
would eliminate it from
consideration for the rest of this
legislative season, its sponsors
may choose instead to wait: and
tack it on to orher bills as an
amendment in hopes that it will
eventually be passed without
drawing attention from pro-
choice forces. Until the Abortion
Control Act has been decided
upon, the Delaware County
Chapter of NOW will be
organizing phone-banking in
opposition to passage of the Act.
Phoning will be done every
Wednesday from 7:00-9:00 p.m.
in Media. Transportation will be
provided for those who are
interested in participating. For
more information, contact Donna
at x7376 or Beth at 328-5035. A
good source of information is the
Planned Parenthood Hotline:
629-1000. It tells you what's
going on and where to find out
more about it.

Local: Metropolitan Hospital is
currently in the process of
considering whether or not to
further cut their abortion services

&

(only first trimester abortions are
now performed). On Saturday,
September 19, about 20
Swarthmore students went to a
demonstration held in front of the
hospital to voice support of pro-
choice policies. Since then, many
other students have been active
in telephoning or writing letters to
Sidney Kahn, director of the
hospital. A decision (originally
scheduled to be made several
weeks ago) has not yet been
reached and community input is
still being sought and encour-
aged by the hospital administra-
tion. Metropolitan Hospital's
number is: 328-9200.

The Women’s Center is located in
two small rooms upstairs in Bond.
The Center is staffed every
weeknight and Sunday after-

“noons. Please drop in, talk, study,

relax, and make use of our library
of books by, for, and about
women.

Sunday 1-3p.m.

Monday 7:30-9:30 p.m.
Tuesday 7:15-9:15 p.m.
Wednesday 7:30-9:30 p.m.
Thursday 2-5 p.m.

Friday 7-9 p.m.

Statement of Purpose

The Women's Center News-
letter will be published monthly to
provide information about
women’s issues on the local and
national levels and is a forum for
women on campus. We
welcome articles, suggestions, or
letters from any member of the
Swarthmore community.
Submissions for the next issue
should be sent to Ruth Sergel
through college mail by
November 30.

Staff

Shoshana Kerewsky
Jennie Allen

Ellen Dye

Lauren Gabor
Wendy Hoben
Debbie Hollander
Fran McMillian
Donna Mullarkey
Cecilia Rodriguez
Ruth Serge!

Emily Silverman
Lisa Utter

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