For example, learners have to be aware of the rule requiring the masculine pronoun 'he' or 'his' to refer to an antecedent of unspecified sex. Next, in using metaphors, learners usually describe women in derogatory images compared to those used to describe men. Women are often referred to in terms related to animals, plants, food or things to satisfy men's sexual desire. Thus, it is common to use such words as a social butterfly, a bitch, a vampire, a shrinking violet, a clinging vine, honey, sweetie, sugar, etc. For instance, the word bachelor has a positive connotation whereas spinster or old maid has a negative connotation.
Old maid is used metaphorically to mean the left over kernels of corn that fail to pop.
Bachelor in contrast, conveys the idea of sexual freedom. Furthermore, it is common to see a number of word pairings with male precedence such as Mr. and Mrs., he and she, boys and girls, husbands and wives, kings and queens, Jack and Jill, etc. in learners' writing. For him, the exception is made only when something is so closely related to what is thought of as the feminine domain, all having to do with family relations and marriage such as bride and groom, mother and father . When learners need to specify that the referent is female, they take the male form as the base form and add a suffix to signal 'female'. The use of generic 'man' also refers to occupations and positional titles such as craftsman, statesman, salesman, chairman , etc.