Hi Fae,
On Wed, Apr 5, 2017 at 12:52 PM, Fæ <[email protected]> wrote: > * https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Village_pump# > Defaulting_to_gender_neutral_language_in_the_Commons_namespace > > 1. "Latinx" is a reaction against using gendered forms Latino and > Latina, in a language that has no neutral gender. This is becoming an > accepted practice in related forums and academic publications. > http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/why-people-are-using- > the-term-latinx_us_57753328e4b0cc0fa136a159 > > I don't know how familiar you are with language politics, but you're 100% factually incorrect here when saying that Spanish has no gender neutral. It does have gender neutral, and I can have full conversations about my spouse in Spanish without giving away the gender of the spouse. Your comment appears to be based on a lack of understanding of how gender works in Spanish, and it is not helpful as a result as comments like this suppress the voices of linguistic minorities and already marginalized groups. Beyond that, how people gender neutral certain gendered words in Spanish can be very culture specific. The link to the Huffington Post is clearly an American Spanish perspective, and there is a huge debate in various Spanish language communities about US Spanish. It is not a standard form of Spanish, and there are discussions about if American Spanish will become its own linguistically distinct language in the next decade or so, as a sort of English/Spanish combination. Trying to impose American Spanish on other Spanish speakers would be grossly offensive given these linguistic issues. I don't think you'd appreciate Jamaican English being imposed on you, and your handling of gendered language issues in English. I also don't think you'd appreciate having Germans with little to no grasp of English trying to impose on you standards of use of English. I'd suggest reading some of the materials published by LGBT organizations in Spanish speaking countries. http://www.felgtb.org/rs/1232/d112d6ad-54ec-438b-9358-4483f9e98868/05d/fd/1/filename/guia-diversidad-ccoo.pdf is one of them. http://www.uab.cat/Document/964/953/Guia_uso_no_sexista_lenguaje2,0.pdf is a guide by a university in Barcelona in how to use gender neutral language in Spain. Rather than have a group of non-Spanish speaking men with little knowledge of the Spanish language and less knowledge of the cultural issues facing the LGBT community in the countries where Spanish is the dominant language try to justify their interference into linguistic debates for which they are ill equipped to participate and where they are not the discriminated against group (because my understanding is that and most of the other men involved in this discussion are CIS gendered men), why don't you reach out to WikiMujeres? This is a Wikimedia user group of Spanish speaking women found at http://wikimujeres.wiki/ . This group actively discusses these issues in Spanish and on Wikimedia projects. They have good working relationships with chapters and can push towards more inclusive Spanish language usage on Wikimedia Commons much more effectively than you can given their contacts and fluency in the language. I am on their mailing list. If you're actually invested in this issue, beyond linking to an linguistically dubious article that doesn't reflect the broader picture of Spanish and making factually incorrect statements, I'd be happy to reach out to the women I know in WikiMujeres to see what opportunities there are for Wikimedia LGBT to work with WikiMujeres to address this issue. WikiMujeres also has regular edit-a-thons on Mondays in Madrid when MediaLab Prado is open. If you're keen to take this further, I can see about getting you (or any other member of this group) an invitation to one of these sessions to discuss this issue and how to resolve it. (I know they were present in Berlin. Did you have a chance to speak with them?) And as WorldPride is taking place in Madrid this year, doing Spanish language activities here with the local Spanish groups might be something seriously worth considering to take advantage. Sincerely, Laura Hale -- twitter: purplepopple _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe>
