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November 2, 2008 12:29 pm at 12:29 pm
#684664
jewishfeminist02
Member
havesomeseichel, “he” is not just “a term for an anonymous person”. It specifically means a male, just as in Hebrew we have the word “hu” which means a male. For space and clarity, many people use the male tense to refer to a mixed group in English; in Hebrew the male can actually grammatically mean a mixed group. (This is why I find the Gemara’ statement “b’neichem v’lo bnoteichem” so puzzling. But that’s a discussion for another time.)
Nobody is accusing you of being sexist, but just know that it is not always acceptable to use the word “he” to refer to a person of unknown gender, and never acceptable to use it to refer to a woman.