[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Bug#263084: Please change sexist language in debian (English) webpages



clone 263084 -1
reassign -1 developers-reference
thanks

On Mon, Aug 02, 2004 at 11:42:56PM +0100, Helen Faulkner wrote:
> 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.

www.debian.org is the right package for problems with the official
web site.  We don't handle all of the URLs you listed, however.

> 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.

I prefer changing inappropriate uses of "he", "him", and "his" to
"they", "them", and "their".  It's easier than rewriting the text,
and the other option sounds awkward.

> 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."
> ***********************************************************

I've removed the gender-specific terminology from this page.

> 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.

I don't think we should perform an automatic conversion; at least
some of the words are probably correct (i.e., they do refer to men).

As for the other URLs,

> http://people.debian.org/~mpalmer/debian-mentors_FAQ.html

You'll need to e-mail mpalmer@debian.org about this.

> 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?)

Please contact debian-sponsor@internatif.org.

> 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

I've cloned this bug and refiled it against the
developers-reference package.

> http://www.debian.org/security/faq

I've fixed the one problematic word I found on this page.  Please
let me know if there are others.

> http://www.debian.org/doc/user-manuals

Please report this to debian-doc@lists.debian.org.

In order to fix the other problems, it would be very helpful if
someone would run

 grep -Erw '(he|him|his)' english

in a webwml checkout and send either a patch or a list of pages
that should be fixed to this bug.

-- 
Matt Kraai            kraai@ftbfs.org            http://ftbfs.org/

Attachment: signature.asc
Description: Digital signature


Reply to: