45 ms·
This is great news, wanted to buy this for a long time, now there's no reason to do it. On a linguistic note, though: this small mistake exposes an interesting
by Jun8 15y ago
This is great news, wanted to buy this for a long time, now there's no reason to do it.
On a linguistic note, though: this small mistake exposes an interesting rift between what's understood to be "sexist language" in the US and in Europe. People are hypersensitive about this issue in the US, typical example is using constructs like "he or she" or just always using the feminine pronoun, with the argument that (I'm simplifying it, of course, so that the margin can hold it) consistent use of "he", say in scientific writing, discourages women from participating.
What always amazed me is that in European countries with a solid track record of feminism, such linguistic issues do not matter. In German, the use of "Mann" is common, there are many female nouns derived from the masculine forms, e.g. "die Hackerin" (discussed on HN: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2908972 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2908972, akin to the -ess ending in English), etc. In French, even if there is only one male in a group, it is referred to using the masculine plural. Many more examples can be given (the "your son" vs "your child" mistake in the title being another one), which to the US ear would be cases of sexism. Yet, this "sexist usage" does not seem to have the negative consequence on female performance in Europe.
What gives?