Using 他 for 她

[Demonic_Duck]

她 is not an invented character...

You mean it's the only one out of the thousands of Chinese characters in existence that wasn't invented? So... someone found it on the bottom of a rock or something? Or maybe a child dropped their character learning cards such that 女 and 也 landed next to each other?

 

gender roles are good and useful. they tell you what to think and how to act so there is no confusion.

Damn, I hadn't thought of it like that before. I sure am grateful to have those handy gender roles to remind me how to think and act, otherwise I'd be at a total loss!

 

When are you going to own up and admit you're just trolling us all?  

[MeiMay]

Demonic_Duck: that's not what I meant I meant it wasn't invented during the Cultural Revolution or recently or anything like that. I don't think we have much to discuss because of your offensive attitude but I will say this: go find a place where people live without any rules or structure and go live there. I wouldn't bet on your chances of coming back alive to tell us how you liked it

[renzhe]

Its pervasive use in literature is indeed rather recent, as is discussed in this very thread.

I don't think we have much to discuss

There is much to discuss, but surely not in this thread, or on this forum. A good forum focussing on social studies, history and/or politics would be a much better place for gender roles and "rules and structure".

Though I would recommend doing a bit of reading on the topic first.

[Demonic_Duck]

Demonic_Duck: that's not what I meant I meant it wasn't invented during the Cultural Revolution or recently or anything like that.

That had already been established only three posts previously to yours, as had the fact that its use as "she" is a neologism, hence there's no reason to assume that "她 feels natural to written language" (other than basing this on western writing conventions or the fact that it's become the accepted norm in recent times).

There is much to discuss, but surely not in this thread, or on this forum.

Fair point, and I'll decline to discuss it any further in this thread, except to say...

go find a place where people live without any rules or structure and go live there. I wouldn't bet on your chances of coming back alive to tell us how you liked it

This is a textbook example of a strawman.