Personal Preference (P)for PHB Pronouns?

[Nifft]

Descriptive vs perscriptive language arguments seem to be independant of age region and education, and that is the other part of what we are seeing.

Of course. Descriptivism vs. Prescrpitiveism is a debate of elemental Law vs. Chaos.

It's the closest thing we'll ever see to the Blood War's motivations.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Scarbonac]

Another vote for "Genderless He". Anything else to me is jarring and clumsy.

 

[blargney the second]

Driddle, your sig is hilarious.

 

[Arkhandus]

I prefer the 3E pattern of alternating he and she, using whichever is appropriate for the example character in any given section (frex, if the iconic bard is female, refer to bards in the feminine, or if the iconic wizard is male, refer to wizards in the masculine), while keeping a relatively balanced mix of male and female iconics for such examples.

Though I kind of prefer the classical use of Man or Men as the default reference for humanity (as Tolkien used), and masculine pronouns as a result, I understand it'd be viewed by some as sexist so I'd rather see a balanced mix to avoid any misgivings about it. Even though most gamers are probably guys, it would be unfair to the girl gamers to just use masculine pronouns in books.

I think it was a positive decision by the designers to make the iconic 3E paladin and monk females, as they're both rather strong and independant archetypes.

Though I'm still miffed that the 3.5 iconic bard was a gnome. Gimble is no true gnome at all, but a halfling poser!

 

[frankthedm]

Another vote for "Genderless He". Anything else to me is jarring and clumsy.

Agreed.

 

[blargney the second]

if the iconic bard is female, refer to bards in the feminine, or if the iconic wizard is male, refer to wizards in the masculine

What do you do with Mialee?

 

[Arkhandus]

Heh, I was just sayin'. I dunno what the 4E iconics would be, but it's doubtful they'll keep the 3E ones.

 

[blargney the second]

Heh, I was just sayin'. I dunno what the 4E iconics would be, but it's doubtful they'll keep the 3E ones.

Thank the Dark Ones for that. Every time I see a picture of Mialee, I only manage to tear my eyes away from the horrific fascination by reminding myself of my buddy's rule: if you can't tell in five seconds, it doesn't matter.
-blarg

 

[David Argall]

We have around 90% of the players male. [A lot of us do have a female PC in our stable, but the PCs are still overwhelmingly male.] Our foes are either sexually unidentifiable or male by around the same percentages. If we look to our historical models, we also get overwhelmingly male percentages.

Now there are sometimes advantages to using the female as well as the male. When there are two figures under discussion, labeling one he and the other she avoids confusion. But in general alternating sexes is simply an affection that hurts more than it help.

The default should be he, with she largely reserved for when the figure is female.

 

[shadow]

Call me sexist or old fashioned, but I come for the old school where he was the "default" pronoun. I suppose language is changing, but I'm still getting used to the gender alternating pronouns.

When I first read the 3e PHB, it seemed to imply to me that all paladins and wizards must be female by default. Of course, it didn't really affect my comprehension, but for someone used to the 1e and 2e books it seemed very jarring. It seemed as if WotC were going out of there way to be politically correct and gender inclusive.

By the way, has anyone noticed how this debate ties in with the Sapir-Worf hypothesis ? The idea that language determines thought is interesting and controversial. Perhaps WotC is hoping that by alternating the gender of the pronoun more females will play D&D and thus increasing sales...