Words to use instead of he or she?

Answer 1

Until recently, maybe the last ten years or so, the proper method of specifying a living entity of unknown gender was to use the term he, him, or his. This has changed though, and it seems that more and more she, her and hers are being used instead. This is possibly due to gender equality issues coming to the forefront of society and writers and advertisers not wanting to sound biased. Unfortunately, this may cause some confusion. When I hear she, her or hers, I immediately think they are talking of a specific female and wonder who this female is. Where if he, him or his were used and they were not speaking of a specific male, I would tend to think gender neutrally. I would be interested in knowing what is taught to today's school children on this topic. If you are looking for a generic term to specify a gender neutral living thing... Do as they do in Canada. Eh! Use "they", "them", "themselves", "person", "a person", "any person", "every person", "no person" or just rewrite the whole sentence to avoid referring to him or her completely. (The reference to Canada pertains to the "Federal Plan for Gender Equality" which mandates gender-equal terms be used in government.)