Basically, it is becoming more common in English writing to use the masculine “hero” as gender neutral when the figure is a famous and/or historical figure.
If it is a fictional character, “heroine” is still widely used.
There’s been a wider trend of using gender neutral terms in the language. “They” as a replacement for “he” or “she”, for example, used to be improper but is now quite widely accepted and not only when speaking about a non-binary person.
Just because your English professors taught at a university, does not mean they are the final authoritative word on how the English language is spoken.
That’s kind of the point: there isn’t an authority on English. The closest we come is a bunch of English elites making up informal rules on grammar, spelling, and pronunciation and judging everyone else for not using their version. … And a bunch of try-hards who enforce their arbitrary and often nonsensical 'rules '.
This case is heartbreaking.
He confessed! Shame on those lawyers for this trash narrative.
No adult would blow up their whole life at the age of 71 if this was consensual.
Mme. Pelicot is a hero to women.
Off topic and pedantic question. I’m not a native english speaker so, please don’t take this in any other way.
In the last sentence you said “hero to women”. Is that the correct usage? Or should it be " heroine to women"?
Good conversation on the topic here
Basically, it is becoming more common in English writing to use the masculine “hero” as gender neutral when the figure is a famous and/or historical figure.
If it is a fictional character, “heroine” is still widely used.
There’s been a wider trend of using gender neutral terms in the language. “They” as a replacement for “he” or “she”, for example, used to be improper but is now quite widely accepted and not only when speaking about a non-binary person.
“they” has always been proper, it just used to be incorrectly taught agaist like split infinitives and ending a sentence with a proposition.
Wikipedia dates its first usge as over 500 years ago, and complaints less than 300.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they
*preposition. Many people end sentences with proposition ;-)
Take that one up with my English professors in University.
Just because your English professors taught at a university, does not mean they are the final authoritative word on how the English language is spoken.
That’s kind of the point: there isn’t an authority on English. The closest we come is a bunch of English elites making up informal rules on grammar, spelling, and pronunciation and judging everyone else for not using their version. … And a bunch of try-hards who enforce their arbitrary and often nonsensical 'rules '.
If it parses, it rolls.
In English hero is mixed and heroine is exclusively feminine.
I tried to find “usage” stats on the word, but all I got was listings for substance abuse helpline. :D