[racket] sad user face?

----- Original Message -----
From: Neil Van Dyke <neil at neilvandyke.org>
To: Racket mailing list <users at racket-lang.org>
Sent: Sun, 19 Feb 2012 05:40:56 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Re: [racket] sad user face?

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!)

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.

-Ian

-- 
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