ubiqutin-my exaggeration was meant as a joke. in my opinion, the “man” in “woman” or “mankind” is no more offensive than the “man” in “manipulate” etc. Just as it is silly to think that the word “manage” is insulting to women, I feel that it is silly to think that mankind is insulting.
And RebYidd’s example was from my list.
AviK- animals have gender too, so it is not strange to say he or she. Or maybe I am just used to hearing Hebrew, which has no word for “it”. (ever hear an Israeli speaking English and referring to inanimate object as he/him or she/her?)
What would the PC folks do if English was like other languages and actually assigned gender to all objects- like Hebrew, Spanish, French? Would they analyze why some words were feminine and some masculine, and get insulted?