Gender Study
It has been interesting to note the issue of gender within this topic. In a field of scholarship largely dominated by men, there has been notable attention paid to the subject of women pirates. Although there is debate as to whether or not this is due to a curious patronization of women trying to keep up in a man's world, there also exists legitimate focus on this topic by scholarly women. Additionally, the use of gendered nouns in scholarship is rather noticeable. For example, in a passage by Robert J. Antony discussing the kai-lang chuan, he states that these "vessels carried crews of about thirty to fifty men" (Antony 107 italics not of author). The corresponding passage in Murray's appendix states that these vessels "could accommodate between 30 and 50 people" (Murray 169 italics not of author). Interestingly, it is Antony who cites Murray's passage and makes the change from the gender-neutral plural noun people to the gender-specific plural noun men. Also, Murray has done specific work on women pirates in the South China region and very aware of the possibility women pirates aboard these vessels. Regardless of the presence of women pirates, however, both Murray and Antony are aware of the presence of families as well as female sex workers, including women non-pirates, aboard pirate vessels and thus it is Murray who is more correct in making explicit the possibility of people other than men onboard. It is clear that there still exists within scholarly academic work the necessity to continue analyzing the propriety of using gender-specific nouns and pronouns. It is of absolute necessity to be aware that when using gender-specific nouns and pronouns, authors must be certain they are referring to gender-specific instances because by doing so they are making the implicit declaration that they are referring to something gender exclusive, whereas this is most often a simple generalization and simply not true.