Bug#290587: marked as done (www.debian.org: please fix gender-biased language in doc/user-manuals)
Your message dated Thu, 10 Feb 2005 02:38:29 -0800
with message-id <20050210103829.GA4900@localhost.localdomain>
and subject line done
has caused the attached Bug report to be marked as done.
This means that you claim that the problem has been dealt with.
If this is not the case it is now your responsibility to reopen the
Bug report if necessary, and/or fix the problem forthwith.
(NB: If you are a system administrator and have no idea what I am
talking about this indicates a serious mail system misconfiguration
somewhere. Please contact me immediately.)
Debian bug tracking system administrator
(administrator, Debian Bugs database)
--------------------------------------
Received: (at submit) by bugs.debian.org; 2 Aug 2004 22:42:40 +0000
>From helen_ml_faulkner@yahoo.co.uk Mon Aug 02 15:42:40 2004
Return-path: <helen_ml_faulkner@yahoo.co.uk>
Received: from colossus.systems.pipex.net [62.241.160.73]
by spohr.debian.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 1 (Debian))
id 1BrlVv-0000B8-00; Mon, 02 Aug 2004 15:42:39 -0700
Received: from [192.168.2.128] (81-86-103-224.dsl.pipex.com [81.86.103.224])
by colossus.systems.pipex.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9ADAC1C000EF
for <submit@bugs.debian.org>; Mon, 2 Aug 2004 23:42:38 +0100 (BST)
Message-ID: <410EC370.5030903@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Mon, 02 Aug 2004 23:42:56 +0100
From: Helen Faulkner <helen_ml_faulkner@yahoo.co.uk>
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7.1) Gecko/20040726 Debian/1.7.1-4
X-Accept-Language: en
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: submit@bugs.debian.org
Subject: Please change sexist language in debian (English) webpages
X-Debbugs-CC: Debian-Women <debian-women@lists.debian.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Delivered-To: submit@bugs.debian.org
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.60-bugs.debian.org_2004_03_25
(1.212-2003-09-23-exp) on spohr.debian.org
X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-8.0 required=4.0 tests=HAS_PACKAGE,X_DEBBUGS_CC
autolearn=ham version=2.60-bugs.debian.org_2004_03_25
X-Spam-Level:
Package: www.debian.org
This bug reports a problem with content on the website. It was
suggested that I file it against www.debian.org, but if there is an
actual different package name for the website (I couldn't find one),
please file this bug against that.
I have noticed some examples of sexist language on the debian website,
looking at the English-language pages. Most examples take the form of
assuming that a developer will always be male, a project leader will be
always male, etc. This can be offputting and potentially offensive to
women like myself who wish to become debian developers, and encourages
people make the assumption that all developers etc are male.
Note that most of the pages I have looked at on the website are fine in
this regard. The most common strategy seems to be avoidance of gendered
pronouns (ie writing to avoid use of he or she), and use of he/she where
it's too awkward to avoid the pronoun altogether. Some pages use "they"
as a gender-neutral pronoun.
The worst example I have seen is here:
http://www.debian.org/devel/join/nm-advocate
I suggest rewording that page as follows (between ***s). The first
paragraph of this was written by Carla Schroder:
***********************************************************
"There is a checklist of what a NM has to do. The NM needs a GPG
key signed by a developer, then has to answer some Philosophy and
Procedures questions. The Tasks and Skills test proves that the NM has
the experience to be a good Debian developer.
You should advocate someone when you think that he/she is ready to be a
developer -- i.e. has the required skills and has been involved with the
project for some time. Just ask yourself if you want to see this person
in Debian -- if the answer is yes then go ahead with your recommendation
The exact steps are like this: you agree to recommend a prospective
developer and he/she signs up. Then you have to go to this site, click
on the correct name in the listing of applicants, go to the "advocate
this application" page, put in your Debian login and press the 'submit'
button. You will then receive an e-mail with an auth key which you have
to return GPG/PGP signed. When this is done, an AM will be assigned to
goes through the NM steps with the prospective developer."
***********************************************************
Other examples of similar problematic wording are at the following
pages. I doubt this is an exhaustive list. In most cases, the change
would be a case of substituting "she/he" for "he" in a small number of
places. I wonder if it is possible to automate the process of
searching webpages for "he" and "his" and subsitituting "he/she" and
"her/him", as a way of ensuring that there aren't any other pages on
www.debian.org with similarly sexist language. Presumably other such
things could be done for the pages in languages other than English, if
the problem arises in those languages.
http://people.debian.org/~mpalmer/debian-mentors_FAQ.html
http://www.internatif.org/bortzmeyer/debian/sponsor/
(I wonder if I were to fill out the form would it come up with "he's
looking for a sponsor", like the others?)
http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/developers-reference/ch-resources.en.html
http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/developers-reference/ch-pkgs.en.html
http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/developers-reference/ch-beyond-pkging.en.html
http://www.debian.org/security/faq
http://www.debian.org/doc/user-manuals
Thank you,
Helen Faulkner.
---------------------------------------
Received: (at 290587-done) by bugs.debian.org; 10 Feb 2005 10:38:42 +0000
>From kraai@lafn.org Thu Feb 10 02:38:42 2005
Return-path: <kraai@lafn.org>
Received: from zoot.lafn.org [206.117.18.6]
by spohr.debian.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 1 (Debian))
id 1CzBib-0004B6-00; Thu, 10 Feb 2005 02:38:41 -0800
Received: from localhost.localdomain (wbar6-lax1-4-10-192-126.lax1.dsl-verizon.net [4.10.192.126])
(authenticated bits=0)
by zoot.lafn.org (8.12.3p3/8.12.3) with ESMTP id j1AAcdCA097684
(version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=RC4-SHA bits=128 verify=NO)
for <290587-done@bugs.debian.org>; Thu, 10 Feb 2005 02:38:40 -0800 (PST)
(envelope-from kraai@lafn.org)
Received: from kraai by localhost.localdomain with local (Exim 4.34)
id 1CzBiP-0001HA-TQ
for 290587-done@bugs.debian.org; Thu, 10 Feb 2005 02:38:30 -0800
Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2005 02:38:29 -0800
From: Matt Kraai <kraai@ftbfs.org>
To: 290587-done@bugs.debian.org
Message-ID: <20050210103829.GA4900@localhost.localdomain>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1;
protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="sm4nu43k4a2Rpi4c"
Content-Disposition: inline
User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.6+20040907i
X-SA-Exim-Connect-IP: <locally generated>
X-SA-Exim-Mail-From: kraai@lafn.org
Subject: done
X-SA-Exim-Version: 4.2 (built Tue, 25 Jan 2005 19:51:04 +0000)
X-SA-Exim-Scanned: Yes (on localhost.localdomain)
X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV 0.80/680/Sun Jan 23 15:16:15 2005
clamav-milter version 0.80j
on zoot.lafn.org
X-Virus-Status: Clean
Delivered-To: 290587-done@bugs.debian.org
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.60-bugs.debian.org_2005_01_02
(1.212-2003-09-23-exp) on spohr.debian.org
X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-2.0 required=4.0 tests=BAYES_00,ONEWORD autolearn=no
version=2.60-bugs.debian.org_2005_01_02
X-Spam-Level:
--sm4nu43k4a2Rpi4c
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Disposition: inline
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Howdy,
I've changed doc/user-manuals to use gender-neutral language, so this
bug is fixed.
--=20
Matt
--sm4nu43k4a2Rpi4c
Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc"
Content-Description: Digital signature
Content-Disposition: inline
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.5 (GNU/Linux)
iD8DBQFCCzmlfNdgYxVXvBARAqbAAJ0TYmIth0r1PfR/4vEuO25YqkYjaACcDX+T
lWDQfQdIAe89ekQl7hDC3fw=
=Z0h1
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
--sm4nu43k4a2Rpi4c--
Reply to: