Leser ... and LeserInnen?

Is "Leser" without "in", "In", "innen", or "Innen" discriminating
against women? Here's my opinion:

The problem is that the german language has recently been changed by people
writing stupid stuff like "liebe Leserinnen und Leser" (dear readers and
female readers). This either means

  1. that women usually can't read, or
  2. that readers are male by default, or
  3. nothing at all, because it makes no sense.

For some reason most people tend to choose 2. instead of 3., which caused
the loss of the knowledge that the linguistic sex of a term denoting a
person does not imply any specific biological sex of the denoted person.

Here're some examples:

     deutsch: Das Mädchen ißt sein Butterbrot.
    englisch: The girl eats her sandwich.
  neudeutsch: Das Mädchen ißt ihr Butterbrot.

     deutsch: Der Schüler ißt sein Butterbrot.
    englisch: The pupil eats his/her sandwich.
  neudeutsch: Der/die Schüler(in) ißt sein/ihr Butterbrot.

If you carefully look at the english version of those sentences, you'll
discover another reason why the german language has changed: the influence
of the widespread use of English in Germany.

The most recent use of "Die SchülerIn ißt ihr Butterbrot." to mean
"Der Schüler ißt sein Butterbrot." is the attempt to make Neudeutsch
readable again. After all, if you (incorrectly) interpret "Schüler" to
denote a male biological sex by default but not explicitly excluding
female pupils, you somewhat compensate this nonsense with inventing the
term "SchülerIn" to denote a female biological sex by default but not
explicitly excluding male pupils.

Unfortunaley now some people think that "SchülerInnen" is another form of
"Schüler(innen)" and therefore stands for "Schüler and Schülerinnen"
meaning "pupils and female pupils". :-(

There are currently four common solutions to this dilemma:

  1. Use "Schüler and Schülerinnen" with "Schüler" meaning <male only>.
  2. Use "Lehrenden" und "Lernenden" instead of "Lehrer" and "Schüler".
  3. Use "SchülerInnen" to mean whatever the reader wants it to mean.
  4. Use "Schüler" in the original meaning again (the pupils).

My personal opinion: 1. is inacceptable, because it retroactively makes
older texts discriminate against women, 2. ist stupid, because
"der/die Lernende" is still unreadable, 3. is inacceptable because it
could mean the same as 1., and 4. can not be used, because too much people
already think that "Schüler" are male by default. I use 4. anyway, because
I still consider it to be the least sexist variant of all -- despite of
the pathetic "Schüler(innen)" attempt to change the language to imply
a male biological sex within the term "Schüler".

Occasionally a fifth "solution" can be found in german texts:

  5. Use "Schülerinnen" to mean "Schüler" and both to mean pupils.

But whether "Schüler" or "Leser" is irrelevant: Both the terms "der
männliche Leser" (the male reader) and "der weibliche Leser" (the female
reader) are perfectly legal german, while "die männliche Leserin" is an
oxymoron and "die weibliche Leserin" a pleonasm. This is absolutely
incorrect german and a severe nuisance for the reader. Fact is:

  - It is untrue that "Leser" denotes male readers and merely "implies"
    female readers.
  - It is untrue that the term "Leserin" can ever imply male readers.

So if 4. ("der/die Leser") is the only use actually being both correct and
readable German and denoting both female and male readers: Why not use it?

There is one reason: It is uncommon to denote a single female reader with
"der Leser". And it is uncommon to denote a single male reader with "der
männliche Leser". Usually "die Leserin" and "der Leser" are used, i.e. 
only the female biological sex is ever explicitly mentioned. This is, of
course, because there simply is no counterpart to the "-in" that would
denote a male biological sex. And since nobody cares to invent one ("der
Leserich"), the "-in" is either not used anymore (the biological sex is in
all cases not mentioned at all), or a more explicit statement is made by
deliberately using an incorrect and annoying other "solution". In my eyes
this is fighting a putatively sexist language by a specifically sexist use.
And in plural it becomes ridiculous (unless it is used throughout a text
without exceptions, including phrases like "die Kundinnen Herr Müller und
Herr Schulze-Ziegenbart" -- that would be acceptable, because no confusion
could arise).