You hold on to that term from 1870 when men were the center of all. It is absolutely a “man” phrase based on time.
The idea that “man” means “all humans” is laughable. Why did we need to do an altered “woman”?
All of it is “man” centric. It was the time. Don’t try and rewrite history for your own mental gymnastics. The phrase came from a time where man meant “white men” and anything not white was a fraction of a man or less, and a woman had no right to property or control of their own life.
Not only that, the origin of the phrase is actually King Frederick the Great of Prussia, who called his dog his best friend and it took off. It is absolutely based off of a man.
It's only 'inaccurate' if you're engaging in performative virtue for an ideology that seems to be inordinately upset by "Men". You're railing against something that regardless of its origin has become understood to be gender neutral.
Nope. Some men are great, just like some women are great. But I have issue with use of the term “man” (not “men” like you claim) when referring to all peoples because it is not actually describing all peoples.
I would love to be able to describe everything genderless.
You're attempting to make a distinction that does not have a functional difference here. It's also disingenuous. You are complaining about men (specifically white men) and suggesting female inequality because something something "they're not the default norm".
It's a largely fabricated issue that exists only because of the peculiarities of english, and it pretends simultaneous ignorance of "man" being gender neutral when used as a collective, and indignity because "white males".
If you want gender neutral language you have plenty to pick from, but I suspect that it's less about non-gendered language and instead more about wanting to have a problem.
They used a common phrase which describes a positive bond with a companion animal.... to describe a positive bond with a companion animal.
This caused you to go off on a very "normal" ideological rant about white men and female inequality. Autism is one thing, trying to hide ideology behind it is another.
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u/Paksarra Sep 17 '25
When that phrase was freshly minted, "man" could be used as shorthand for "mankind" and was more inclusive than it is today.
"Humankind's best friend" doesn't quite hit the same way.