Unless the writing is specifically relating to “Women's issues” or “gender” we will be fed an image of a man. This is not a natural reaction to a nondescript person in a text, this is the reaction of constantly having He/Him/His used as the identifiers.
There are clauses in contracts stating 'anywhere that the identifier is stated as He/Him/His is referring to all people this contract is relating to, male or female' and similar sentences for the same meaning. We, as readers, are expected to understand that this man we are reading about is only a man for the ease of writing, and it does not exclude women, of course. As readers we accept this and read on. There is after all, no choice in the matter. We don't have to read it but if we want to know the concept of what is being written we must accept and ignore the He and, if we wish, imagine a S/he.
If it is just the words He/Him/His in texts we can squint and try to focus on the subject matter, imagining maybe a woman if we wish or someone who is androgynous, but this can be strenuous so we tend to just stick with the image of a man.
When all texts (unless otherwise stated) refer to men, and all these incredible characters we use as examples are men, there is a distinct lack of women's presence. When the audience of literary texts are only imagining a world of men as their focus for discussion, women and their lives are pushed out and excluded from conversation. When a person is automatically removed from a situation due to their body and physical state they are being discriminated against.
Some may be reading this and thinking it can't possibly be as wide spread as what I am saying.
The real problem is that we are so used to it we don't even notice. It is so indoctrinated into our brains through society that it is normal for 'him' to be an example and anything other than 'him' is a deviation from the norm, therefore women are an 'other' topic. How can it be that women and men are so balanced in population percentage and yet one half takes the whole perspective and the other half takes none?
I am not suggesting we go through all of the published writings for all history and change any 'He' to a 'they' or 's/he' (although I wish we could). I am, however, frustrated that in this day there are still publications referring to Him, and thus we are still living in a 'Man's World'. People who question feminism should try reading and imagine the character as a perfectly gender neutral human. When we can do this I will put down my megaphone (maybe).
