While I agree with the Captain (see comments, previous post) regarding the power of words to influence thought and action, I also believe in the power of thought to influence words.
Let me just interject that this line of postings was borne mainly from frustration. One, frustation that the policing of words tends to interfere with communication rather than aide it. I suppose that's partly my inner pendulum swinging towards logical, left-brain thinking - words mean what we know they mean and should be used the way they should be used. I forget that language is useful as a form of communication because words and structures carry large bundles of accumulated associations, and can therefore convey more than just a precise, dictionary-sanctioned definition.
Two, I'm just frustrated that we haven't gotten this whole "equality" thing sorted out. I mean, come on. It's been like thirty years. *sigh*
I feel that these words which are under attack (eg. freshman, chairman, and especially mankind) are already, by convention, gender-neutral. Yes, they contain the root 'man'. But grammatically, its a schwa [yay! a chance to say a favourite word!- nk]; and really, we're learning to see these words as gender-neutral, so why not let that run its course rather than turn this into another battlefield. We can choose how we respond to these words, ie. let our thoughts influence our words rather than vice versa.
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