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Re:Baltimore plant ruins 15M Johnson and Johnson coronavirus... by Johnny555 on Thursday April 01, 2021 @01:37AM (#26656995)
Apparently it started in the 18th century, so there's a lot of inertia to overcome to get people to change.

But she says it was from the 18th century onwards that people started using male pronouns when describing someone of a non-specific gender in writing and this marks the time when opinions on what pronouns should be used started to change.

"You might have a sentence like 'if a student comes to see the teacher, he must bring his homework', where he is supposed to refer generically to males and females," explains Dr Emma Moore.

https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-49754930

Re:Baltimore plant ruins 15M Johnson and Johnson coronavirus... by damau on Thursday April 01, 2021 @06:05AM (#26658525)
I have been learning Italian. Don’t slam me for this if it’s wrong I am a beginner. But there are a number of contexts in Italian to which lei (she) is used. One for polite and respectful use (such as a general in the army, regardless of gender) or if the person’s gender is unknown.

Just thought I’d throw that out there.

Re:Baltimore plant ruins 15M Johnson and Johnson coronavirus... by manuelmoreale on Thursday April 01, 2021 @06:19AM (#26658605)
Very formal/polite way to refer to people yes. But in Italian we also have “voi” and its use can be traced back centuries before “lei” started to be used.