| Message ID | 20210611202819.47077-1-felipe.contreras@gmail.com (mailing list archive) |
|---|---|
| Headers | show |
| Series | Avoid gender pronouns | expand |
Hi Felipe, On 12/06/21 03.28, Felipe Contreras wrote: > The latest solution looking for a problem [1] is to use the actively > debated among linguists singular "they" [2]. > > Leaving aside the linguistic intricacies that not all singular "they" are > equal [3], and the overwhelming sentiment that these kinds of political > discussions don't provide value for this community [4], the "issue" can > be easily solved by simply using different wording. > > - The reviewer herself > + The reviewers themselves > > Problem solved. So this patchset avoids any gender pronouns by changing single subject to many objects (plural), right?
Bagas Sanjaya wrote: > Hi Felipe, > > On 12/06/21 03.28, Felipe Contreras wrote: > > The latest solution looking for a problem [1] is to use the actively > > debated among linguists singular "they" [2]. > > > > Leaving aside the linguistic intricacies that not all singular "they" are > > equal [3], and the overwhelming sentiment that these kinds of political > > discussions don't provide value for this community [4], the "issue" can > > be easily solved by simply using different wording. > > > > - The reviewer herself > > + The reviewers themselves > > > > Problem solved. > > So this patchset avoids any gender pronouns by changing single subject > to many objects (plural), right? That is just one example. A good writer like a good programmer uses different tools for different situations. Another tool used in this patchset is to make use of the passive voice: she made a mistake -> a mistake was made. Another is singular "they" (but used properly). And another is to just completely reword the offending sentence. Cheers.
On Fri, Jun 11, 2021 at 03:28:17PM -0500, Felipe Contreras wrote: > The latest solution looking for a problem [1] is to use the actively > debated among linguists singular "they" [2]. > > Leaving aside the linguistic intricacies that not all singular "they" are > equal [3], and the overwhelming sentiment that these kinds of political > discussions don't provide value for this community [4], the "issue" can > be easily solved by simply using different wording. > > - The reviewer herself > + The reviewers themselves > > Problem solved. > > Cheers. Perfect, I like this. This style is clearer, more neutral, and more on point. Thanks, Robert
On Fri, Jun 11 2021, Felipe Contreras wrote: > The latest solution looking for a problem [1] is to use the actively > debated among linguists singular "they" [2]. > > Leaving aside the linguistic intricacies that not all singular "they" are > equal [3], and the overwhelming sentiment that these kinds of political > discussions don't provide value for this community [4], the "issue" can > be easily solved by simply using different wording. > > - The reviewer herself > + The reviewers themselves > > Problem solved. > > Cheers. > > [1] https://lore.kernel.org/git/pull.975.git.1623085069.gitgitgadget@gmail.com/ > [2] https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2013/01/singular-their-affront-good-writing/319329/ > [3] https://ahdictionary.tumblr.com/post/147597257733/updated-usage-note-they > [4] https://lore.kernel.org/git/87wnrooa17.fsf@evledraar.gmail.com/ > > Felipe Contreras (2): > doc: avoid using the gender of other people > comments: avoid using the gender of our users This looks good to me, especially the reduction in verbosity in hunks like: - * parameters to the callback, `strbuf_expand()` passes a context pointer, - * which can be used by the programmer of the callback as she sees fit. + * parameters to the callback, `strbuf_expand()` passes a context + * pointer with any kind of data. The comment gives you the same information, but now it takes a shorter time to read it.
Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <avarab@gmail.com> writes: > On Fri, Jun 11 2021, Felipe Contreras wrote: > >> The latest solution looking for a problem [1] is to use the actively >> debated among linguists singular "they" [2]. >> >> Leaving aside the linguistic intricacies that not all singular "they" are >> equal [3], and the overwhelming sentiment that these kinds of political >> discussions don't provide value for this community [4], the "issue" can >> be easily solved by simply using different wording. >> >> - The reviewer herself >> + The reviewers themselves >> >> Problem solved. >> >> Cheers. >> >> [1] https://lore.kernel.org/git/pull.975.git.1623085069.gitgitgadget@gmail.com/ >> [2] https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2013/01/singular-their-affront-good-writing/319329/ >> [3] https://ahdictionary.tumblr.com/post/147597257733/updated-usage-note-they >> [4] https://lore.kernel.org/git/87wnrooa17.fsf@evledraar.gmail.com/ >> >> Felipe Contreras (2): >> doc: avoid using the gender of other people >> comments: avoid using the gender of our users > > This looks good to me, especially the reduction in verbosity in hunks > like: > > - * parameters to the callback, `strbuf_expand()` passes a context pointer, > - * which can be used by the programmer of the callback as she sees fit. > + * parameters to the callback, `strbuf_expand()` passes a context > + * pointer with any kind of data. > > The comment gives you the same information, but now it takes a shorter > time to read it. Looks good to me. I am tempted to suggest that we should take this as "fix to the documentation proper". We can discuss the policy and guideline separately.