EDITOR'S RESPONSE: This is an Editor's Response to your comment. If you are satisfied with this response, please change the state of this bug to CLOSED. If you have additional information and would like the editor to reconsider, please reopen this bug. If you would like to escalate the issue to the full HTML Working Group, please add the TrackerRequest keyword to this bug, and suggest title and text for the tracker issue; or you may create a tracker issue yourself, if you are able to do so. For more details, see this document:
   http://dev.w3.org/html5/decision-policy/decision-policy.html

Status: Rejected
Change Description: no spec change
Rationale: The Chicago Manual of Style (13th edition, 1983, p. 233) says:

"On the one hand, it is unacceptable to a great many reasonable readers to use the generic masculine pronoun (he in reference to no one in particular). On the other hand, it is unacceptable to a great many readers either to resort to nontraditional gimmicks to avoid the generic masculine (by using he/she or s/he, for example) or to use they as a kind of singular pronoun. Either way, credibility is lost with some readers."

Currently the spec throughout uses "he", "him", "his", and "himself" as gender-neutral pronouns, as has long been standard practice in English. This is clearly not intended to be sexist — much less misogynistic! — and changing it to using the singular "they", the periphrastics "him or her", the Spivak pronouns ("ey"), the historical gender-neutral pronouns ("ou"), or the variety of other forms ("s/he", "ze", etc) would not lead to a document that was any easier to read and may in fact in many cases lead to a document that is significantly harder to read, especially for non-native readers (the majority of the target audience for this document).

I do understand the complaint, and consider it a valid issue with the English language. I do not think that the HTML5 spec is the right place to be breaking ground with regard to English grammar. Sexual equality for all genders — female, male, transgender, intersex, and the raft of other gender identities — is of great importance to me. For example, every year I volunteer at a number of FIRST events to attempt to redress the gender imbalance in our field on the long term. In my own endeavours I embrace gender identity issues; for example, the game I am currently writing offers third gender pronouns on an equal footing to male and female pronouns.

I hope this response shows how I have carefully considered the issue, and I hope the explanation for the resulting decision is understandable.