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 In the past, similar efforts to remove outdated, gender-biased terminology have met with resistance.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 While the manual of style encourages gender-neutral language, I am often reverted when trying to change outdated terms like 'aviatrix' to 'aviator' (WP:FEMFORM).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discussions among folks in the space exploration community that use of the word "manned" and "unmanned" in Wikipedia is outdated and gender-biased.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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