Gender and OLPC
There have been now and then some discussions about the use of she, he or s/he... since the argument has to do more with the style rather than the subject of the page, I moved it here.
Note: I added my signature to a comment I did, the rest is copy-paste. --Xavi 22:57, 8 February 2007 (EST)
Contents
Sexist Article
- Original discussion at Talk:Bitfrost
Author refers to user in the feminine sense (she). Why not use non-gender-specific terminology such as they and their? ~ Some user.
She is understood as s/he. 209.181.213.53 21:44, 7 February 2007 (EST)
- A good way to use non-sexist language is simply to use the phrase he or she. Using he is traditional and is unfair to women, using she reads awkwardly. The German language has different words for male teacher and female teacher and so on and uses the equivalent of teachermale or teacherfemale in sentences. Reading he or she seems natural, balanced and factual. So maybe each use of she could be changed to be he or she please?
- This does go rather deeper than just this particular article. As this article is an official OLPC managed page one may perhaps wonder how OLPC documentation for the children will be worded. The use of the word they as a way of referring to one person so as not to indicate gender is an unfortunate trend in English these days. It is not, however, as bad as another trend, namely using the word you to mean someone or using the word you to mean some particular organization whose responsibilities are being discussed. This produces sentences which upon analysis sound ridiculous, yet such usage happens very often in television news interviews nowadays.
- I also 'dislike' the pc-emphasis on 'she'... I would prefer the explicit 's/he' which goes perfectly highlighting the gender issue, while addressing both and remaining neutral. Unlike spanish where although you could write 'el/la' (el/ella) but then has to drop neutrality in the words following—ie: el/la chico/a; el/la alumno/a; etc. --Xavi 09:00, 8 February 2007 (EST)
not sexist
This is bull. I thought the "she" thing was cute, and as a lady I'm hardly offended at this subtle acknowledgement of the existence of female computer users, even from the earliest days. Is anyone offended or upset here actually female, or is this all about hypothetical sensitivity awareness? In books on Go, it's traditional to switch between "he" and "she" when referring to the different players, can't we just as easily accept this playful switch? Get over it, dudes. -134.174.140.200 22:14, 8 February 2007 (EST)
Women in the 70s
"any code the user executed, she ipso facto trusted for all practical purposes."
Since when did women use computers in the 70s? ;)
- Probably more than you can imagine... including the famous first real bug discovered by Grace Hopper (who amongst other things is credited for writing the first compiler). See also Women in Computing. --Xavi 22:57, 8 February 2007 (EST)
Thompson or Ritchie, which is the "she"?
That "she" is in a context that refers to the original UNIX developers. Were they bearded ladies? I've never seen women with grey beards before, but I guess it could happen.
Come one. If "he" is somehow offensive as sexism, then "she" must be equally so. The hypocracy is getting laid on nice and thick here. There is no excuse for this. Users of "he" at least have the excuse of using Standard English. Using "she" is obviouslyly sexist, as well as being factually incorrect.
24.110.145.57 21:25, 8 February 2007 (EST)
