[JupiterMoon]

In general people use "him" as a replacement for "him/her". Other people use the pronoun "her" to combat the implicit assumption that people must be male. Since they are not identifying the student in this blog post one cannot ascertain the sex of the student from the fact that blog post uses the word "him". My use of the word "her" had nothing to do with any fucking.

[AnimalMuppet]

> In general people use "him" as a replacement for "him/her".

That's one of the ways people use "him". Other times, they use "him" to mean that the individual in question is male.

These days, "her" to combat the implicit assumption that people must be male is common enough, it's almost safer to assume that "him" means someone who is specifically male.

[JupiterMoon]

> These days, "her" to combat the implicit assumption that people must be male is common enough, it's almost safer to assume that "him" means someone who is specifically male.

I think this is not true yet. Anecdotally I personally only noticed this first a few months ago and no one I've discussed it with in real life has yet known what I'm talking about.

[sbuk]

Look, you can use all the twists of logic that you like, the facts of the matter are these; the protagonist is male and they were in the wrong.

[JupiterMoon]

How do you know the student is male? You said that CERN and the University did not name the student?

[sbuk]

Because unlike you I read the fucking article. In it, the author directly refers to the student as 'him' and 'he'; therefore it is safe to say, despite your politically ridiculous musings, that the protagonist is male.

[JupiterMoon]

No it is not safe to do so -- as I have already explained in detail. And yes for the uptenth I read the article.

[sbuk]

You are wrong. End of. Learn when to back down.

[JupiterMoon]

Not really. I think that you are wrong you think that I am wrong. We will never resolve this. Goodbye.

[cezary]

Looks like we need a new word to identify male if "him" no longer works.

[AnimalMuppet]

Well... in JupiterMoon's defense, the word is overloaded (in the C++ sense). We use "him" for "male", and also (historically) for "person of unspecified/unknown gender".

Now, we're more using "her" for "person of unspecified/unknown gender", but the problem remains: We've got three states (male, female, and unknown/unspecified), and only two words (him and her). No matter what, there's going to be this kind of problem, until we come up with a third word. (People have suggested "they" or "them", but I don't like it because of singular/plural issues.)

[_Simon]

But "them", "their" and "they" are perfectly serviceable and have been used for a long time.

[_Simon]

Like "they", "them" and "their"? English is a wonderfully flexible language, it's such a shame that ridiculous and faddish political correctness is so utterly blind to it.

[JupiterMoon]

If CERN are not identifying the student publicly then we do not know that they are male.

[sbuk]

Well we do, since TFA article refers to the student as male multiple times. You take is your take. It is politically motivated.

[JupiterMoon]

No we know that they used the word him and his. This does not as we have already established identify the student's sex.

[sbuk]

Don't be ridiculous.