Originally Posted by
Koyote
Our language lacks a personal pronoun for cases in which we are referencing a generic individual-- generic because we're not talking about a specific person, or because we don't know the person's gender. It's a language problem, not an issue of gender roles.
The bigger problem is that most of the derogatory pronouns are not gender neutral. As soon as you refer to a ****, a *********, or an ******* it identifies the subject of scorn as male or female. The English language needs a really vile, repulsive pronoun that can be used to insult someone, while still be respectful of gender identity issues.