RE: Master/Slave

Subject: RE: Master/Slave
From: Dan Emory <danemory -at- primenet -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 15 May 2000 07:43:13 -0700

At last, a voice of sanity!
I can see that we need a gender-neutral way of saying he/she or him/her, but beyond that, where "sensitive" terms like master/slave have been in common usage for many years, suddenly coming up with a new term only confuses the reader, who is likely to say to him/her self:

"Hmmm they didn't use (old Politically incorrect term) so they must mean something different."

A pox on those who want to force their PC silliness in tech docs.
=====================================================================
At 10:30 AM 5/15/00 +0530, Edwin Skau wrote:
>Hello:
>
>Are we taking the 'political correctness' party too far? What is
>your problem with the term master or slave? Maybe we should knock
>off words like boss, superior, subordinate, inferior, etc. from our entire lexicon.
>
>The problem with politically correct and incorrect speech is that one can convey a very mean and hostile message using politically correct terminology. At the same time, we are going to lose out on a lot of good if all we can see in a communication are the 'politically incorrect' or potentially embarassing or insulting.
>
>I was a journalist when the Soccer World Cup finals were to
>be played in the US, and there was a lot of discussion on whether
>the term 'head' should be used in the commentary. Well, convention won over the finicky, sniggering terminology police. I also see 'header' and commonly used in this and other lists, without invoking visions of the Lewinsky girl in action.
>
>Master and Slave convey a very lucid impression of the roles the components play, and since it serves the purpose without making a personal assoult on anybody, what's our problem?
>
>IHS
>
>eddy

====================
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====================
Dan Emory, Dan Emory & Associates
FrameMaker/FrameMaker+SGML Document Design & Database Publishing
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