I never felt 'not included' by the use of male pronouns,
but I was greatly affected by an essay Douglas Hofstader
wrote in his second book (the one after "Godel, Escher, Bach" -
sorry I can'tremember the title). The essay was a work of
fiction defending the practice of using different pronouns
for black and white persons. In his fictional world, males
and females weren't distinguished by pronouns, but races
were - terms like 'Niss' and 'Whiss'. He even postulated
that, in this world, when black people became employed
they took the employer's name.
His essay was supporting these conventions with all the
arguments used to support normal gender-specific pronoun
usages. It was a real eye-opener to see the 'language equity'
debate put into an unfamiliar context - it uncovered a lot
of the underlying assumptions. I don't know why this essay
hasn't become a women's studies classic, except that after
Hofstader first published it several people apparently
thought he was *advocating* the development of racist pronouns!
Pat Bowne
