under rehearsed

As someone who believes language matters so entirely, you ought to have proof-read for errors your last couple of sentences, one of which didn't actually make sense...! You obviously feel passionately about the subject, which is perhaps why you became a little incoherent as you yourself became defensive in the very sentence wherein you accuse Na of being defensive. Sorry, but I didn't read Na as coming across as defensive or aggressive. She came across as inclusive...inviting you to finally join the conversation in a constructive way rather than cryptically winding up the other participants. If, as you say, you are so familiar with this site then surely you would recognise Troll-like behaviour in your very own initial posts? As far as the pronoun debate, sure, both sides have a valid argument - until we translate the whole conversation into a language like French or German. Then suddenly every noun has a somewhat arbitrary gender, and the gender of the pronouns becomes rather less significant. Just because English doesn't have a better option for a neutral pronoun other than the convention of picking the shortest one for convenience, it doesn't mean the author's intention in using them wasn't neutral. The subject of pronoun gender is both a highly significant topic, and a petty irrelevant topic, depending on whose agenda is being followed. Both points of view therefore cancel each other out. The only thing that's relevant is whether the discussion relates to the topic at hand....and I'm glad to see that finally in this fourth attempt you are actually contributing something relevant to the thread. Cheers, Craig ~<8>-/====\---------