I'm not sure why people are so outraged about this. It was the author's choice, and he came to it after having arguments posed to him that made him rethink the

I'm not sure why people are so outraged about this. It was the author's choice, and he came to it after having arguments posed to him that made him rethink the way it came across and how he uses things like, "Explain it to my wife" in every day language. I for one, applaud someone him for being willing and open to criticism which he personally came to the conclusion he was not comfortable with. No one hacked his site and defaced it and took it down, no one complained to his hosting company...It was his choice, because he apparently cares about how he comes across, and was moved by valid arguments from others. Things like this that are more subtle are honestly the most important to address. Since people tend to not call other people out on them, they'll go on using latently sexist/racist/homophobic/etc. phrases and language and not understand what impact that makes. Many people, like this author, are really reasonable and it gives them something to think about - especially if you come to them about it in a reasonable way, which I'm assuming some people did. As for the issue of the person in the dialog, perhaps it could be replaced with something like a kindergartener, generic male buddy, or even make things fun like Plato/Aristotle or what they did in GEB with Achilles/Tortoise. I really applaud the author for making this change. The article was a bit uncomfortable for me as a woman in tech. And as a side note: If you think this is an "overreaction" (which I don't think it is), there's way worse stuff out there to be outraged about. I got banned on a (biological) woman's health board for using the word "female" because not everyone identifies as female and apparently I offended some people. It felt like something from the Women's First bookstore sketch in Portlandia :)