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Question for the women: does the use of non-gendered pronouns do anything to make you feel more accepted by the programming community? It seems to me like ther
by rlt 13y ago
Question for the women: does the use of non-gendered pronouns do anything to make you feel more accepted by the programming community?
It seems to me like there are much bigger issues to worry about, and changing some docs here and there is nothing more than feel-good measures (along the lines of "we must do something, this is something, therefore we must do this" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politician's_syllogism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politician's_syllogism)
But I'm not a woman so I have no idea.
- jaredmcateer 13y agoMy girlfriend, not a programmer per say but has done a some technical documentation in her time, says that non-gendered pronouns doesn't make her feel more accepted but gendered pronouns do make her feel less accepted.
- stefan_kendall 13y agoI find both "he" and "she" jarring. When there's no reason to use gender, it shouldn't be used. It makes me think the author either 1.) does not have a strong enough command of the english language to use "they", or 2.) is trying to accomplish something by picking a gender explicitly.
- gruseom 13y agoThat's well put, and I'm with you, but let's also note that the language norm is in the process of shifting, so it isn't necessarily obvious.
- steveklabnik 13y agoI specifically had multiple women both on my Twitter timeline and in private communications tell me how alienated they feel by gendered language, and this reaction to fixing it in general.