With regard to Professor Arnhardt’s satirical (intentional?) letter about the use of non-sexist language, I would submit that while possessing an average sense of humor, I found nothing in his letter to be even slightly amusing. Language is used, among other things, to communicate societal values. I question a society in which a woman is valued as merely an appendage of a male or a bringer of woe.

My own personal sense of woe is heightened by letters of this ilk. Professor Arnhardt, kindly refrain from trivializing that which affects over half of this world’s population directly, and indirectly the entire world.

Laura E. Frankiewicz

chair, committee on

the status of women