Tuesday, May 11, 2010

"People"...






Read this report on prostitutes and the World Cup:

The taxi drivers hustling around the bars on Long Street in Cape Town say they are ready for all the soccer fans that will flood the city in June for the World Cup. So are hotels, restaurants, breweries and, inevitably, prostitutes.

Arguably, the soccer World Cup is to the sex industry what the holiday season is to candy shops, a temporary surge of excited people feeling collectively festive, willing to pay for a bit of extra indulgence.

Bolds are mine.

The next bit does tell us that what they mean by people is really men.

This is an example of the "male as default human being" and a funny one, because even the most oblivious person will immediately spot the way it is being used! But that didn't stop the writer from keeping that first generalized paragraph.