West Point may make school’s songs more gender-neutral
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- May
- 19
Last week, the Associated Press reported that Lt. Gen. Franklin “Buster” Hagenbeck, head of the U.S. Military Academy, wants to make two traditional West Point songs more gender-neutral.
During a presentation to the academy’s Board of Visitors, Hagenbeck proposed finding alternatives for “sons” and “men” in the lyrics of the school’s “Alma Mater” and “The Corps,” noting that more than 3,000 women have graduated from West Point since 1976, including two female graduates killed in Iraq and buried at the academy.
So, does anyone out there have any good suggestions for ways to make the songs more inclusive? (The comments posted by readers on the AP story on LoHud.com last week unfortunately devolved into political rhetoric.) It’s too bad that English has such few gender-neutral options; one columnist has even suggested singing the songs in Latin. I’m certainly stumped…
This entry was posted
on Monday, May 19th, 2008 at 5:40 am by Nicole Neroulias. 
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