Boating

By Kevin Falvey

Editorial

O

N SEVERAL OCCASIONS, I’VE

caught flack when I’ve utilized the

feminine pronoun “she,” as I do in

this issue in my Seamanship

column, to refer to an unspecified operator of

a boat. The person at the helm may be male or

female, so you’d think it’s a toss-up as to

which pronoun to use and that no one would

care. But whenever I use

“she,” I get letters and

emails in which I am

asked why.

For the record, the

same never happens

when I write “he.”

I suppose I could

avoid gender altogether.

After all, we boating

scribes have at our disposal the gender-

neutral terms “captain” and “skipper.” I do

not like using the pronoun “they” as singular

generic. “Helmsperson,” anybody?

I might be hailed for trendiness if I

adopted this approach, but it’s clumsy to

write in English if one limits the stock of

pronouns from which to utilize. Try it.

You’ll see. The Norwegians, a people with a

vast and storied nautical history, did try it,

inventing the new word hin. Norwegians

that I know tell me that nobody uses it.

The bigger issue, for me, is that men and

women both run boats. I see no need to hide

from that fact. Depersonalizing the text risks

making the story less compelling, less likely

to be read thoughtfully and, as a result, less

successful in communicating the message I

set out to share.

None of this is to imply that boating is

an activity pursued by males and females

in equal measure. Facts are facts. Our own

subscriber lists are comprised mostly of

males. More boats are registered to males

than females. Simultaneously, we must

realize that plenty of those subscribers and

registrants have female wives (I was going

to write “married,” but lack the space here to

open another can of worms), girlfriends and

daughters who go boating all the time.

It’s not women who send me emails

of complaint in response to the use of the

feminine pronoun. There are plenty of

women boaters. Plenty more would like to

boat but need just a bit of help to get there —

a place where empowerment, support and a

shedding of social and cultural baggage are

the orders of the day.

I found such a place in MarineMax’s

Women on Water program and sent writer

Morgan Sherburne to get the inside scoop. You

can read about it on page 78. I take no credit

Kevin Falvey, Editor-in-Chief

[email protected]

The Better Half

TO HE OR SHE, THAT IS THE QUESTION?

W Depersonalizing the text risks

making the story less compelling,

less likely to be read thoughtfully and, as a

result, less successful in communicating the

message I set out to share.

18 BOATINGMAG.COM APRIL 2016