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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Isida Kep'Tukari" data-source="post: 6216171" data-attributes="member: 4441">As a female, I was rather chuffed to see female pronouns included the 3.0 D&D books.  The books just alternated examples, sometimes using he in an example, sometimes using she, and that was totally fine.Waiting for some kind of arbitrary body to adjudicate our language by the creation of some vague gender neutral pronoun means we could be waiting a long time.  Languages shift naturally, with or without the guidance of some institution.  "He" may be the proper gender neutral compound in the English language right now, but those rules were also written during a time period when no one really gave two figs about using women in an example in literature.  Why shouldn't we use "she" as often as "he" in writing examples when speaking generically?  Because honestly, unless you're describing an exclusive gender activity (like childbirth, or describing certain things in a real-life historical or cultural manner), should it really matter what imaginary type of person is theoretically doing something?  Why can't we imagine a woman doing these things?Using "she" as a pronoun in examples sounds "unnatural" to many people because it's only relatively recently that people have made an effort to use it.I also do not like the argument that, "Well, just imagine that a woman is doing this or that in the examples, even if it says he, because he is gender neutral."  It's bothersome to me as a woman because we make up a significant portion of this hobby, and I do care about seeing examples of females right there in print.  We are not some exotic, unnatural creature, and I think the familiarity that is granted by putting women more forward in print helps make our hobby both more accessible and more inclusive.In short, boo to "gender neutral" he.  Use both pronouns, because both men and women play.</blockquote>

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