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Re: Homophobes, engineers, and other alien life forms
Subject:Re: Homophobes, engineers, and other alien life forms From:Matt Ion <soundy -at- NEXTLEVEL -dot- COM> Date:Sun, 24 Nov 1996 23:13:13 -0800
On Fri, 8 Nov 1996 07:46:48 -0500, Martha Cosgriff wrote:
> always found the expressions "abort" and "miscarry" to be particularly
> loathesome, since they deal with physiological tragedies applicable
> only to women,
Umm, pardon... but since when does "abort" apply only to women, and
only to the intentional termination of a pregnancy?
> Yet, these "female-based" words are even more prevalent since the
> advent of computers (as in the DOS prompt: "Abort? Retry? Cancel?").
"Retry" and "Cancel" are female-based words???
> "Yep, it's F-----D." (from a group of engineers standing around a
> crashed computer.)
"Fucked" is a female-based word?
> "I nuked that file." (same source)
"Nuked" is a female-based word (apologies to Madame Marie Curie)???
> While it has a certain pungent humor, this type of speech is hardly
> sober, temperate, or scientifically precise.
Neither is this kind of excessive Orwellian sensitivity to mere words.
Your friend and mine,
Matt
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