Neil Van Dyke wrote at Sun, 19 Feb 2012 05:40:56 -0500 (EST):
John Clements wrote at 02/18/2012 08:48 PM:
On Feb 18, 2012, at 5:43 PM, Luke Vilnis wrote:
To weigh in on this - when I was an undergrad, women routinely called themselves
"freshmen."
I think this is becoming less common.
Even Brown U. and the few Seven Sisters that I checked seem to use
"freshmen" in current official communications. (Not a lot of
"freshwomyn" in Google.) I'm guessing that at least some of these
schools are sensitive to current thinking on feminism. Perhaps they're
a bit ahead of the curve?
For more PC yet recognizable in the US, you could say "first-year" or
the catchy, one-syllable "frosh".
Around the world, I'm guessing that "first-year" is the most recognizable.
As for the issue J. Ian Johnson raised, of Chad, the hero of the Realm,
being male... that's a tricky problem, especially if he already appears
in a lot of illustrations, and you can't just text search&replace half
of the scenarios to have Charlene instead. Half-joking solution, if you
do have lots of Chad illustrations: if you imply that Chad is gay, that
might let you keep the illustrations without alienating nearly as many
contemporary college women. (But then, oh dear, those shoes!)
J. Ian Johnson wrote at 02/19/2012 10:29 AM:
Er.... you may think that's funny, but that kind of gender insentivity is what
this thread is trying to avoid. The implied amount of work to introduce a new
character so that the book is gender neutral makes
(non-half-assed/unintentionally offensive) plans too expensive. Unfortunate.
I should not made the "shoes" joke, which I could have anticipated might
have offended someone here needlessly. In hindsight, I can also see how
the solution I half-seriously proposed might hit a sore spot with
someone, so I might have framed it differently.
Regarding why the sensitivity oops... I've spent many years in highly
liberal and progressive communities, as well as done lots of activism in
the past, and my message was mistakenly calibrated for people in those
circles, and who'd also have a pretty good idea where I'm coming from.
In a corporate environment, of course I would tiptoe and simply make no
reference to any of a laundry list of problematic topics. In the small
world of a liberal arts college environment, I'd make my point and then
be prepared to discuss/deconstruct/debate with even the most
frothing-at-the-mouth, hair-trigger, loose-canon activist. On this
global email list, however, I should have considered that people are
coming from a broader diversity of societal and social contexts, and
that the pain and delicacy of such topics varies widely.
If anyone was personally offended (no white knights), I'd appreciate
hearing from you, so that I can consider any thoughts on this that you'd
be willing to share.
--
http://www.neilvandyke.org/
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