On Friday, 20 July 2018 12:50:12 AM AEST Jonathan Dowland wrote:
> Have you read Matthew Vernon's reply to OP in this thread? Does that not
> explain it?
Matthew did not convince me. IMHO his explanation is weak as it boils down to
"there are many problems like this and we should fix this problem because
there are other similar ones"...
I refuse to judge the matter with my feelings. To decide rationally we need
to identify inappropriate component.
Because trying to aggressively eliminate what makes us feel uncomfortable is
against diversity, against multi-culturalism, against tolerance.
Can you explain what makes you feel uncomfortable about it?
Is it (semantics of) the word itself or context?
If we recognise word "boobs" as inappropriate in Debian community, doesn't it
also condemns (good) things like breast feeding in public by association?
Isn't that too far? We might be doing more harm than good.
I think what stigmatising the word is cultural bias implying negative context
by interpreting and extrapolating meaning that word itself may not carry.
Like assuming bad intentions. Why not assume the opposite like some degree of
admiration?
When we hear word "hair" do we automatically imply dirty/messy hair or a
beautiful one?
If to you word "boobs" is more inappropriate than it is to me, that's
probably because you are attaching more negativity to the word.
What seems to be the problem is application of cultural bias to assign
negative meaning and by doing that we perpetrate the very problem that I'd
rather destroy. Maybe if we all try to stop negative interpretations then we
might have a chance to eliminate the problem instead of supporting it.
I see the whole thing as the other side of multi-culturalism.
If we were from the same culture then it would be easy to agree what's
(in)appropriate. (Example: showing hair or skin in public).
In multi-cultural society there will be always something you'll probably
never accept and something that others will never understand about you.
And that's OK as we can still be friends and respect each other as long as we
don't try too hard to adjust everyone to our standards.
> Do you mean: it would be ridiculous to perform s/boobs/arm/ in the
> package? Indeed it would be.
It is more interesting to explore why would it be ridiculous. Probably not
because it instantly weakens inappropriate-ness but because it changes
_nothing_. Other parts of human body can be just as attractive or objectified
just as much. The same arguments can be made about legs, arms, hair.
If problem is not the (particular) part of human body then what it is?
Not a context - purpose of the software is not offensive. Debian context
implies no problem either - we are a friendly community. It appears to me
that the root of the problem is culturally shaped perception.
Truly multi-cultural society have more to gain from diversity than from
attempts to adjust each other to certain language standards.
> Or do you mean it would be ridiculous to
> object to *arm* in packages or binary names? Nobody is doing that.
Not today, not yet anyway... But why not? The same mechanism of distortion
can be applied to any word for any part of human body.
Another absurd example: "claws" - clearly an offensive reference to ugly or
malformed human hands. Inappropriate. Let's ban/remove from Debian or
rename...
IMHO that kind of interpretations are toxic and inappropriate. Why not try to
think more positive?
--
Best wishes,
Dmitry Smirnov.
---
I am easily satisfied with the very best.
-- Winston Churchill
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