cobraboy, after reading your post 147 I can understand why you took offence at being told your language was sexist as you clearly did not mean it that way.
But I still don't understand why people still get up in arms about someone saying that "man" to mean the species as a whole is not the best way of expressing things. It is no longer in common usage - the dates on the quotes in post 148, which date back to the time when women were well and truly in the kitchen illustrate this - and nowadays, "people"/"humans"/"humanity" are perfectly acceptable alternatives that are clearer about encompassing both genders. Language is constantly evolving. Words are replaced by others for all sorts of reasons.
I never burned my bra (
a myth frequently used to belittle those 1960s feminists who may not have got it all right but today's women owe a lot to them as well as to the suffragists and many others) but have to admit that I have taken part in protests as well as many the things you so eloquently state your admiration for. And, like Chris, I never lost my sense of humour - I even went to Personchester once...

[sorry, no groaning smiley]
Chiri, I never meant offense. What I don't understand is why a person should take offense if there was never any intention for it to be offensive to begin with.
And since I meant no offense, I don't see any problem with using the collective word "men" as I did before. I'm a Big Picture guy; I don't spend much time parsing text and syllables in a hunt for feigned offense. There is a difference between pointing out alternative uses of a given word, and calling one a sexist. Big difference.
I'll judge folks based on the totality of the content of their character, not by an occasional word they used in innocence that I *might* find some "offense" to. I don't live in a "gotcha" world, hunting for the negative, looking for offense.
Folks just need to chill and take words and comments within their context. The problem with the innerweb, as Rocky points out occasionally, is all that's there is letters on a screen, just one piece of one sense, and leaving the other 4 senses out of the judgement making process.
Folks also just need to relax and have a sense of humor. It's a lonely, angry existance constantly looking for enemies, being suspicious of people and their intentions, and doing battle with them all the time, even on the WWW. If someone wants to live that way online, go for it. Just don't invite me to the party.
I meant no offense, and it's doubtful I will in the future. Believe me, if I want to offend someone, I have an entire verbal, intellectual and physical arsenal to do so.
As a child of the turbulent 60's, and a former Major League hippie freak, I clearly understand the various "movements" within the Western culture of the last 50 years. Been there, done that, have many T-Shirts. But as I go forward in life, I choose to ~treat~ my fellow man with respect and kindness with my
actions; I am not hyper-sensitive with whatever the prevailing PC words are that someone, somewhere wants to be offended about. I may stray there from basic human failing, but it's not intentional.
My intentions may be honorable, but my words, without bad intent, may fail. And, honestly, I'll probably use the generic "man" again in it's proper context, and I'll mean no offense by it at that time.
There are many, many threads on DR1 with non-PC content that could be interpreted by some as truly offensive; my use of "man" ain't one of them, unless one is looking to be offended. Besides, one of the endearing qualities of the DR, compared to the cultural cesspool much of the Western World has become, is that one does not have the PC police on every corner.