> Okay, but Stanford is not demanding that; this site is about words they don’t want used on their own websites and marketing materials. This isn’t a list of words they don’t want you to use, it’s a list of words they don’t want to use. The obvious solution if you don’t want to be policed by this word list is to not work at Stanford.

I'm a little confused by the transition that happened within this paragraph. You start with a language used on websites and in marketing materials, and end by saying not to work at Stanford (which I don't :-) ). But there is a long range of cases that fall in between marketing materials and total strangers. Will professors, who are neither websites nor marketing materials, be obliged (or "advised") to abide by the code? Will the students? If someone working/studying at Stanford thinks that this is stupid, is he free to ignore the advice? Or does he have to leave? If someone associated with Stanford writes a book or a paper, will he need to have the language of his manuscript checked? What about a master's or a phd thesis? What about a talk? Lots of uncertainty there.

> is he free to ignore the advice? Or does he have to leave?

are they free to ignore the advice? Or do they have to leave?

That's exactly what I am talking about :-) In my idiolect, it's a he; in your idiolect, it's a they; our idiolects are perfectly understandable to both of us; and yet, instead of simply recognising a variation in my speech, you feel an urge to change my language.

Remarkably, it's exactly the opposite of the public attitude towards regional dialects. Where previously it was common to correct speakers of non-prestigious dialects, it is now required to be accepting and tolerant.

I take issue with “perfectly understandable”.

I think many (most?) people hearing or reading that would make an assumption from your use of ‘he’ that you expect that professors and students are usually male. Perhaps that you believe they _should_ be male. If you really mean them to be gender-neutral, you are not communicating clearly. I would argue that this has always been true - but even if I’m wrong about that, it’s true for modern English usage.

The hypothetical "someone" in my sentence (a professor or a student) is indeed probably male if I look at him closely. I pass no comment on whether professors or students _should_ generally be male; but at the same time, have no qualms with imagining them as such. I understand that many think differently, and have seen plenty of texts where an imaginary character of unspecified sex is introduced as a she (a random example: "For a Product Owner to properly adapt a product, she needs some empirical evidence, something to inspect", from "The Professional Product Owner" by Don McGreal and Ralph Jocham). My argument is that if should be perfectly fine for a writer to use the default gender that he is most comfortable with.