In this politically correct era of his and hers, I think we've drawn too many lines.

I understand the importance of being fair to both men and women, but we went too far when we started to tread upon pronouns.

When put-together words refer to individuals in general, the pronouns "his and hers" box us into our separate gender roles even more.

As a young woman I appreciate the fact that women before me have fought for equality with men. And as a journalist I respect what they achieved by writing "his and hers" every time I write about "someone."

But as a human I think only in terms of "his."

Even the Bible states clearly that men and women are both the same.

In the King James version of the Bible, Genesis 5:1-2 says, "In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name AdamÉ"

When God made people, He created man and woman. ÊBut male and female were both made to be the same species -- "mankind."

God called us Adam. A name we consider to be masculine. Appropriately the pronoun we should use to refer to ourselves as individuals should be "he."

I don't see any reason to split hairs in sentences by saying "he or she."

The truth is women don't lose a piece of their identities when someone says "his" when speaking about individuals in general.

On one hand, while we bring these phrases like "his and hers" into our everyday speech, we're taking words like "black" and "white" slowly out. People are offended by distinguishing between the races.

We want so desperately to be united under one frame of mind. We all need one word to call ourselves to unite us, and that word is "mankind."

It is exactly who people are and exactly how we should refer to ourselves.

Madeleine L'Engle probably referred to the whole "his and hers" phenomenon best when she wrote, "That 'his' and that 'he' refer as much to Jane Austen and George Sand as to Flaubert and Hemingway. They are generic "his" and "he," and not exclusively masculine."

For those of you who don't know who George Sand is, she was a French writer during the 1800s.

I find it interesting that women can have names that are decidedly masculine but cannot abide with the use of a masculine pronoun to refer to females.

So what's the fuss over "he and she"? Even if you like the distinction between male and female, you can still save some effort by not making the distinction.

By simply saying "his" you save a fraction of a second more time by eliminating those nine extra keystrokes. Those fractions of seconds add up after awhile.

You also save space on a page by getting rid of that unnecessary word.

Stop and think about it the next time you are writing a research paper and have to put "his or hers" to refer to all the characters in the book you're writing about.

I know you will have to write it anyway, because your professor probably requires it as part of the Modern Language Association or something.

But is it really necessary to make the distinction we all already understand?

Michelle Hudgens is a senior journalism major from Pineville and serves as associate editor for The Tech Talk.