[156838] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: guys != gender neutral
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Kevin Carmical)
Thu Sep 27 15:55:26 2012
X-Barracuda-Envelope-From: KevinC@uca.edu
Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2012 14:52:23 -0500
From: "Kevin Carmical" <KevinC@uca.edu>
To: <deleskie@gmail.com>,<nanog@nanog.org>
In-Reply-To: <1839502393-1348771928-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-285181986-@b11.c17.bise6.blackberry>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
So say we all.=20
=20
Kevin Carmical
Network Support
UCA
BBA 107
501-450-3107>>> <deleskie@gmail.com> 9/27/2012 1:52 PM >>>
Maybe one of the folks here there aren't laywers but likes to give legal =
advice, that covers the use of male language to be for shortness in =
responses and no way indicate gender bias so we can all get back to =
talking about network :(
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network
-----Original Message-----
From: JC Dill <jcdill.lists@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2012 11:36:03=20
To: <nanog@nanog.org>
Subject: Re: guys !=3D gender neutral
On 27/09/12 11:10 AM, Jo Rhett wrote:
> Or when actually referring to persons of mixed gender, here's a quote=20
> from something I posted in a private forum (my own journal) which is=20
> safe for export:
>> Because frankly, we're all in this together and honestly everyone loves =
the competition. The guys I race with often come find me afterwards and =
tell me where they got past me, or ask me how I kept passing them. The =
really fast girls rarely want more than a beer to go out on the track and =
give you a detailed breakdown on what you are doing wrong. We all help =
each other.
>
> In this situation I'm leaving it up the reader to grasp that I'm not =
saying that the girls are all faster than the boys, but I believe it's =
understood in context as the topic was about how peers help each other =
out.
It's NOT helping to equivocate "guys" and "girls"!
Guys and gals =3D equivalent
Boys and girls =3D equivalent
Guys and girls !=3D equivalent
All the TV shows that refer to female contestants as "girls" are not=20
helping when they (universally) refer to the males as "guys". Unless=20
you refer to the male contestants (on TV) or team members (at work) as=20
"boys" you shouldn't be using the word "girls" to refer to the females.
> I really wish that english had better pronouns for this.
I really wish folks would dig a bit deeper into the thesaurus to find=20
appropriate words. One can use a variety of gender neutral words with=20
some simple re-writing. Remember, it's perfectly OK to employ singular=20
"they" as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they
jc
