Editor:
I would like to address the benign, but ridiculous letter from Heidi Blitch entitled: “Gender and Entrepreneurs.”
In the letter, Heidi points out that the French word “entrepreneur” carries a masculine gender, and therefore argues that the School of Business’s Utah Entrepreneur Challenge is discriminatory against women. This argument carries no water.
As a student of language, I am familiar with gender-carrying nouns. In many languages there are two forms of nouns describing occupation ? one for each gender; however English is not one of them. “Entrepreneur” is one of many foreign words that have been adopted into the English language. You will find this word in an English dictionary, and nowhere in its definition will you find any gender connotations.
I am proud to be a woman and desire to protect female equality with men, but there is a point at which the struggle for equal gender rights and political correctness becomes asinine. I find that often the movement places more restrictions on people than it removes.
In a world with so many important issues to argue about, it seems ludicrous to bother with such an empty matter. Heidi, I’d like to employ one of the most wonderful features of language ? the idiom: don’t make a mountain out of a molehill.
Sarah TerryGerman Major