Use 'egg-producing' not 'female', call to phase out binary language

Re:Use 'egg-producing' not 'female', call to phase out binar... by metadat on Thursday February 16, 2023 @04:20PM (#34826412)

This seems over the top in the same vein as the Stanford "Elimination of Harmful Language" initiative.

Stanford's “Elimination of Harmful Language” Initiative

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34039816 (1800 comments, 2 months ago)

Direct archive link: http://web.archive.org/web/20221219160303/https://itcommunit...

I'm all for being inclusive and am happy to use whatever pronoun you want, but TFA's proposal is excessive to the point of confusion and distraction. The world has a lot bigger equity and inclusivity challenges than words like "man" or "woman".

To make it more concrete, here are a few examples of issues affecting 10s of millions of people every day in the USA alone:

* Access to medical care (that won't put economically disadvantaged folks into bankruptcy)

* Mental health services (for both houses and unhoused)

* Ensure home ownership is attainable for the next generation

* Ensure opportunities for education are abundant and able to be dispensed efficiently

Consider homeless people: these human beings are literally excluded from participating in most of society. Is it really their personal failings alone, or is it a combination of factors including the failure of government and communities to take care of those around them? Why do places like Texas bus homeless and former inmates to San Francisco with impunity? It's literally throwing a problem over the fence into someone else's yard. An utterly and absurdly low-empathy / bad-actor move.

I'm sad to have written all this, because what's another dumb post on HN going to accomplish. Nothing significant. I'm sorry for that.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Use 'egg-producing' not 'female', call to phase out binar... by bell-cot on Thursday February 16, 2023 @04:34PM (#34826665)

> The world has a lot bigger equity problems than words like "man" or "woman".

Yes...but if you are a zealous-enough ideologue in your little web bubble of linguistic one-upmanship, then you can get away with doing nothing actually useful about real-world problems.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Use 'egg-producing' not 'female', call to phase out binar... by metadat on Thursday February 16, 2023 @04:39PM (#34826750)

I kept editing and arrived at the same conclusion. Thanks for the call-out.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Use 'egg-producing' not 'female', call to phase out binar... by bell-cot on Thursday February 16, 2023 @05:03PM (#34827108)

You need to stop using any sort of written, signed, or spoken language - out of basic respect for those who are not able to do so, or who make the personal choice not to do so.

[ Parent | on HN ]