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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mythago" data-source="post: 6220525" data-attributes="member: 3019">It's often used in the same way that children use "IT'S NOT FAIR!" when asked to let somebody else have a turn, or to pick up their toys. That is, they're being asked to change what they're doing and mildly inconvenience themselves in order to treat other people fairly, and they don't like it - but it sounds so much better to pretend that it's a principled stand (for 'fairness' or 'free speech' or against 'groupthink' or 'orthodoxy') than to just say they don't wanna.Re the generic masculine: it isn't actually a genderless masculine. If it were, then it wouldn't sound at all odd to say "Every ballerina must purchase his own toe shoes" or "Every new mother, after he gives birth, should breastfeed his child if possible." It's 'generic' because of the cultural view that the default person is male, with female being a deviation from that. Also, that it's acceptable to refer to women generically as 'he' but insulting and improper to refer to a man generically as 'she' - that is why, in traditional grammar, if you have a group of 100 women you would use a female pronoun, but introduce one man and suddenly you're supposed to use 'he'.</blockquote>