Re: [boost] Gender neutral documentation

From: Anthony Williams (anthony_w.geo_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-11-04 05:43:56

Martin Bonner <martin.bonner_at_[hidden]> writes:

> David Abrahams <dave_at_[hidden]> writes:
>> Joel de Guzman <joel_at_[hidden]> writes:
>>> This means for example that the
>>> client can completely discard Bind if she does not need it; or
>>                                                             ^
>>                                            that should be a comma
>> 
>>> perhaps take out Operator and Statement and just use Function, which
>>   ^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>   "she can leave"
>
> Is there a boost convention on gender neutral language?
>
> I approve of the sentiment behind using "she" (there aren't enough women in
> technical roles), but I do find myself stumbling every time I read it.

Agreed. I realy dislike this usage.

The use of "she" implies the person in question is female. Though "he"
technically also has the implication that the person is male, it is general
usage that "he" is used as a stand in for "he or she". If we really want to be
gender neutral, we should write "he or she", which is what we really
mean. Sometimes this is abbreviated "s/he", but that's an ugly kludge. Better
would be to rewrite the sentence to avoid the issue.

> My personal preference is to use "they" as the first person singular
> gender-neutral pronoun.  This will be /intensely/ irritating to grammar
> purists, but does seem to be the way the language is evolving.

I don't like this, but it is preferable to "she".

Anthony
-- 
Anthony Williams
Software Developer
Just Software Solutions Ltd
http://www.justsoftwaresolutions.co.uk