Re:Consider Renaming Gimp to a Less Offensive Name
by flukus on Friday July 05, 2019 @03:07AM
(#20360460)
I'm not arguing that the etymological origin of the word isn't offensive, just that most of it's current usage (in my experience) isn't. If anything having such a great and popular app associated with the word will further diminish it's derogatory use.
> Out of 379M native English speakers[1], 234M[2] live in the US. That's about 61%. If our English-language norms are widespread, they're also likely used by a majority of native English speakers.
The replies here indicate that it's not universally used in it's derogatory meaning within the US either. Not that it matters, I was talking about applying the cultural norms to the rest of the world, the culture being the PC professional standards of white collar workers in large cities. The more that get's forced into OSS, of which this is just one example of a trend, and most of the world and anyone that want's more inclusivity should be fighting against this sort of rubbish.
Dictionaries aren't perfect, but they're more widely agreed-on and useful than your anecdata.
> they're trying to apply US (at least parts of the US) cultural norms to international projects
Out of 379M native English speakers[1], 234M[2] live in the US. That's about 61%. If our English-language norms are widespread, they're also likely used by a majority of native English speakers.
(That's also not including Canada, which shares many of our language norms.)
> alienating most of the world
How does changing the name of Gimp "alienate" anyone? Whose feelings would be hurt and why? Who would stop using the product out of rage?
1. https://www.ethnologue.com/statistics/size
2. https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/...