All women are Men. It is the name of our race/species.
I can't speak for the OP, but I feel neither offended nor discriminated against by the terms “man” or “manning.” Neither is it my intention to piss people off, but it would seem that the whole issue of seeking gender neutral language, and especially the neutering of masculine gendered terms, cuts some folks the wrong way. Maybe it’s the close proximity of the words “neuter” + “masculine,” rather than the search for a less gendered language that accounts for the resistance.
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Is there a non-gendered term for manning a station, as in manning the desk? The only ideas I can come up with are "stationed at" the desk or other clunky things. Finding the right gerund would make my day.
Well, I think "manning" is pretty gender-neutral these days. Honestly, I have heard female WNBA coaches exhorting their female players to "make sure you guard your man." (And they were, of course, playing other women, not men.
"Manning" is not gender neutral, because its presumption is that the person doing the job in question will be male. The use of "man" in female sports does not make it gender-neutral but rather shows how ingrained gender specific language has become.
Even the Mekon said "Man the guns! Destroy Dare's ship!", when the operators concerned weren't even humans
I'm not talking about etymology here, but about the perception of the word in modern English. There's nothing over-sensitive about wanting to find a more neutral-sounding alternative.
@842,346 (C)
I think, if anything, we should change the word for male humans to something else and keep the word "man" to mean human.
(Edited 21 seconds later.)
@previous (Big Daddy Derek !Uvm54ORbmo)
Inb4 he starts posting child porn again
@previous (Fake anon !ZkUt8arUCU)
The best one in this thtead..