On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 11:43 AM, Thomas Koenig fossa@gmx.li wrote:
Sue, Delphine & al., On Mon, 07 Feb 2011 11:25:25 +0100, Delphine Ménard notafishz@gmail.com wrote:
On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 7:51 AM, Sue Gardner sgardner@wikimedia.org wrote:
[...]
So just to make sure I'm understanding this: on for example the German Wikipedia, not only are all registered users identified as part of a male category (Benutzer, "male user"), but the actual invitation to register in the first place is itself also gendered (Benutzerkonto, "account for male users")?
Hmm. It is a bit more complicated that that. When you translate it into English, "account for male users" sounds terrible, but in French (or German, for that matter) having to sign up for a "Compte d'utilisateur" or a "Benutzerkonto" does not sound that bad, at least not to me.
JFTR: "Benutzerinkonto" is not a German word, it would look awkward to say the least to any native German speaker.
Yeah, that's what I thought. Compte d'utilisatrice would sound weird, although it would be correct.
Besides that, I find all the chatter about grammar, quite tangential. There is a culture of misogyny in the Wikimedia projects, way above the level of comparable work or even volunteer environments, which is neither due to the use of grammar, nor can it be adequately fought with a change grammer rules in the software.
Heh, have you then never been addressed as a "Benutzerin"? ;) "notafish" is gender neutral enough that "utilisatrice" changes the whole perspective when appended to the username.
I agree that this may not be the most important issue, but I also believe that all issues that can be tackled should be tackled. And this is one which might prove quie easy to tackle, actually.
Delphine