Re: [CR]Gender Preference ?

(Example: Framebuilding:Paint)

Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2007 23:24:52 -0400
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
From: "John Betmanis" <johnb@oxford.net>
Subject: Re: [CR]Gender Preference ?
In-Reply-To: <000b01c811e0$65545030$0202a8c0@Leo>
References: <MONKEYFOODSVvAyfxRy00000cd4@monkeyfood.nt.phred.org> <4717A7C6.6060405@sonic.net> <01a001c811c6$8e2f23f0$0300a8c0@D1> <004d01c811dd$e4efe230$6501a8c0@D5FSLZ21>


At 06:41 PM 18/10/2007 -0500, Robert Clair wrote:
>.... my cat (a female shelter rescue) who watches the list with me on
>occassion, is wondering why several list members continually refer to
>bicycles in the "she" sense.

It's interesting that in French a bike is masculine (le vélo) while a bicycle is feminine (la bicyclette). However, in German it's masculine (das Fahrrad) but in Italian it's feminine (la bicicletta). It boggles the mind what will become of all these languages when Political Correctness takes over as it seems to be doing in English with the elimination of feminine gender nouns such as actress, hostess, etc.

John Betmanis
Woodstock, Ontario
Canada