Wikipedia's manual of style has a section devoted to gender-neutral
language (MOS:GNL). I think it would be useful to add something about
using "manned" to the related essay 'Wikipedia:Gender-neutral
language'.
Given the knee-jerk reactions by some editors to anything they perceive
as "PC" language, I would caution against optimism. In the past, similar
efforts to remove outdated, gender-biased terminology have met with
resistance. For example, proposals to change the practice of using
feminine pronouns to refer to ships have been vigorously opposed. While
the manual of style encourages gender-neutral language, I am often
reverted when trying to change outdated terms like 'aviatrix' to
'aviator' (WP:FEMFORM).
~gobonobo
On 02/24/2015 09:04 PM, Maia Weinstock wrote:
Hi all,
There have been numerous discussions among folks in the space
exploration community that use of the word "manned" and "unmanned" in
Wikipedia is outdated and gender-biased. Unfortunately, going in and
fixing all of these by hand would be rather labor-intensive...
Someone recently created a browser plugin that replaces "manned" with
"crewed." (See
https://twitter.com/mcnees/status/570409472818061312)
It would be such an awesome thing if a bot existed that updated these
instances for real on English Wikipedia. Anyone have ideas for making
this happen, perhaps just limiting it to space exploration? I do see
some issues with it being done wholesale for the whole site, as
certain terms might contain terminology that would create confusion if
changed automatically. (For instance, "unmanned aerial vehicles," for
better or for worse, is a known term that I wouldn't advocate changing
at this time.)
Anyway, just thinking out loud...
Maia (user:Girona7)
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