Re: why language matters
On Monday 02 August 2004 3:48 pm, Helen Faulkner wrote:
> Carla Schroder wrote:
>
> [...]
> > Language is powerful- it shapes thoughts and perceptions. It really does
> > matter, and I think it's within the scope of Debian-Women to take on a
task
> > like this. It's pretty simple- one of the biggest perceptions we're trying
to
> > overcome is that Debian is a big ole boy's club, that doesn't want any
stinky
> > old girls. When documents like the one Helen cited only talk to men, it
> > reinforces the boy's club perception.
>
> Agreed. Language shapes our world.
>
> Actually, I've just sent a bug report in for this. Now I'm wondering
> whether or how much I'm going to get jumped on for complaining about it,
> for not filing it for a real package, for anything else in general. I
> may live to regret this...
>
> Anyway, please add whatever comments seem good to you, once the bug
> report gets back to the mailing list (I X-Debbugs-CC'd it), and reword
> my suggestion for that particular webpage however you like. I started
> with Carla's paragraph (hope you don't mind that Carla) and added a
> moderately sensible alteration of the rest, but we can quite possibly do
> better (mind you the original wasn't exactly amazingly good anyway).
>
Hee, I've noticed a lot of Debian docs could use a bit of, er, improvement, so
when my current commitments are completed, I'm going to volunteer to assist
in document production and editing. Quite a few Debian authors are not native
English speakers, and they still do a pretty good job, so I think helping
with the final polishing will be a useful contribution.
--
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Carla Schroder
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