Patrick said:I must confess to failing to give it much thought beyond my propensity for "he" in an example and a wild, irrational desire to veer from the beaten path. It did occur to me fleetingly that, as this example has "negative" connotations, my impulsive behavior might be viewed askance but I brushed this away as unwarranted paranoia and let it stand.
Not that you, Mrs. Peel, are engaging in any askanced (why is that not a real word?) viewing. :)
Giving it more thought now and being cognizant of the fact that women are still treated shabbily in many places in all sorts of ways ($.77 on the dollar vs males in same job US, last I heard), I believe I'll use s/he, a personal pronoun or simply she for positive examples and he for the negative.
It's long been my view that the idea of treating men and women equally greatly devalues the worth of the average woman, and it would harm no one for my written words to reflect this.
Thanks for the question.
Well, you don't need to go that far. "He" shouldn't always be negative. I think s/he would work though. :)