writing guidelines #32
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| To avoid gendering in community interaction has multiple benefits. Avoiding the alienating feeling of documentation implicitly misgendering you, "the user and his computer". | ||
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| This this is true of roughly half the population. |
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jbenet wrote:
Sorry my push -f ate all your comments :/ i thought it would be more clever. I did not propose singular plural, but actual plural, "computers" not "computer". I agree that female gendering is less problematic, but ungendered expressions should still be prefered. |
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| #### Motivation | ||
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| To avoid gendering in community interaction has multiple benefits. Avoiding the alienating feeling of documentation implicitly misgendering you, "the user and his computer". This is true of roughly half the population. Using plural forms is a good hack on the english language to get around this problem. This also includes extraterrestial beings and future lifeforms. |
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"Avoiding gendering" is more natural.
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Not sure this gets the point across. How about:
Avoiding gendering in community interaction has multiple benefits. Using a male or female pronoun alienates and unfairly prioritizes one gender in favor of another. For instance, saying "the user and his computer" may feel alienating to women, or vice versa. Luckily, in English, the pronoun 'their' can be used as both a singular and a plural form (cf. Singular they). Saying, "the user and their computer" is entirely acceptable and alleviates the issue. Furthermore, this also includes extraterrestial beings and future life forms.
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I agree: guidelines should include some basic pronoun examples.
That way reader does not have to look it up elsewhere.
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IAAAL*, so added a line note about singular they. This is a totally legitimate form that some 19th century pedants (read: jerks) didn't like, and prescriptivists (read: jerks) have issues with, but we can 100% use with impunity. It solves all the issues. *IAAAL: "I am actually a linguist" |
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I suggest adding a note about using the female version, if there it's not possible to use "their" or plural. |
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@dignifiedquire that shouldn't happen. Since this is a guideline and not a rule, anyway, I think it's not really necessary to do that. |
Ungendering proposal