I feel obliged to chide the membership about an increasingly common occurrence, in which spam threads deteriorate into substantive discussions! I mean, come on, people!
![Mad :x](./images/smilies/77angry.gif)
"Womyn" and "herstory" . . . wow, that takes me back a bit. . . .
![Cool 8)](./images/smilies/icon_cool.gif)
But I do think they were on to something, though it can be handled pretty well without maiming the language. Genuine exclusive language, including the often-defended "male includes female" usage, really does exclude people. I was a teenager when my church gave it up (over loud protests from many conservative congregations). I remember thinking, well, whatever—it can't really matter that much. Then, decades later, I went to a couple of services at a church that had not done the same thing. Whoa. I didn't feel as if the service was for me; I felt I was eavesdropping while God talked to the men.
(Isn't "Her-man" the opposite of "He-man"?)