so i've been writing a paper about the dangers of cults on individuals and the psychological methods they use to recruit new members. i've been trying to talk about various cult leaders and their followers. but because i'm using general terms, i've been referring to them in singular terms. i.e. "the cult leader and his followers." the only problem is that the term "he" is clearly no longer acceptable because there's no telling, unless i'm using a specific case, that the leader is male. it's like how we changed mankind to humankind and man-made to human-made. i just can't use "he" anymore. So that leads me to the question: WHY CAN'T THERE BE A SINGULAR, GENDERLESS PRONOUN IN ENGLISH?
i mean, i COULD say at the beginning of my essay that all cult leaders, unless specified, will be referred to as male. but i think that sounds nicht-so-gut. it's not fair. i mean, hebrew and german and chinese and i'm guessing many other languages have this singular, genderless pronoun that i yearn to use, but why not english? bahh, oh right, cause the english language is ridiculous.
Or maybe the system is ridiculous. Is it really degrading to women to use the term "mankind"? Personally, i don't care whether we use politically- or gender-correct terms or not as long as it makes my life easy. gosh. they don't have this type of problem in other languages. stupid western world and their "correctness".
