The problem is, though, that by highlighting the differences to make sure people are aware of them, those differences get exaggerated. By stopping using the word ‘man’, ‘he’, etc., to refer to everyone whatever their gender, the differences get exaggerated when they don’t matter, such as in the experience of running. Dropping ‘man’ to be all inclusive solves some problems of gender bigotry, but creates others.

People are aware of this in English, and have tried, over the years, to create alternative words such as ‘ze’ for ‘he’ or ‘she’—but they’re not used. Some dialects do have gender neutral pronouns, perhaps one could be generalised? One can write alternatives, such as s/he—which has no pronunciation. One can say ‘he or she’—a clunky three syllables to replace a swift half. One can say ‘one’, but that has different usage, and introduces class where it isn’t wanted. ‘They’ can be used for ‘he’ or ‘she’ too, but that blurs plurality as well as gender, so doesn’t always work (‘they runs’ is wrong). Each alternative is specialised, nothing generally works. Personally, I wonder whether we should restore the use of ‘man’, ‘men’, ‘he’, etc., for both genders, and only using other words when necessary, but in such a way as to avoid ignoring important gender differences.

Sometimes, gender difference is so obvious it doesn’t need to be said. One can say “he gave birth” in all contexts except the biological; indeed, in all contexts but the biological, the phrase “she gave birth” exaggerates a difference that isn’t there; gender is irrelevant for the creation of ideas. But in the biological context, gender is so blatantly obvious in the process of giving birth that it’s not actually necessary to state it.

However, there are more subtle gender differences that must not be ignored, that aren’t so obvious from the context. We don’t want to get back to that silly place where offices have no women’s toilets. I think finding a correct usage will take experimentation.

Anyway, reverting to the old English use of the words won’t work in our modern world, most people will resist any change. I suspect it’d be easier to learn a gender neutral language than change English. All the same, I think I might experiment with gender neutrality in poetry, and see what comes out.

Come to think of it, Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch novels told a gender neutral story, so that gender was always hidden. The language worked. I might go back to the books to see how he did it.