Thanks for your comments. We’ll most likely start to “gender” once we relaunch the website somewhen in the next couple of quarters. The reason why I’m reluctant to do this is because I’m quite certain that this will decrease the mass appeal of the website. So when we do it we’ll do it with the expectation of decreasing the amount of donations. Reasons are:
- Currently our site is kind of gender neutral already since we don’t just use the male version but male and female versions alternate (see https://blog.zeit.de/glashaus/2018/02/07/gendern-schreibweise-geschlecht-maenner-frauen-ansprache/ for a longer explanation). There are at least some people who care about a gender neutral language who prefer this approach (it was also the new and progressive way to do it when I was at the university). - The vast majority of Germans don’t use a gender neutral language themselves and I would assume that most don’t want it to be used in general. I don’t have a data source for the latter but the fact that pretty much all newspaper don’t use gender neutral language different to ours seems to be a clear indicator for that. This obviously doesn’t mean that one shouldn’t do it, just that it’s not mainstream yet. Obviously it’s very different with different demographics. Eg when I think of people I’m close with I know several who are kind of actively annoyed with gender neutral language but they are all 40+. It’s not because they are opposed to the concept but because they are used to a different language and it make the language less appealing for them. I tend to agree (I’m also 40+). For me it’s the same as with vegan food. It’s the right thing to do but it’s just not as appealing as the stuff I’m used to. Talking to EAs who attended university during the last ten years I’m sure it will be quite the opposite.
I’m still unsure about this, but personally I found that discussing this topic for a few hours has not convinced me of the importance of using those new gender-neutral forms, except insofar it is really important for some fraction of students who tend to be politically active and open to EA ideas and who feel like women are kind-of actively excluded in the common language. It also feels to me a bit like an in-group signal of progressive groups and I cringed a few times when I felt socially compelled into using it.
Hi Chi!
Thanks for your comments. We’ll most likely start to “gender” once we relaunch the website somewhen in the next couple of quarters. The reason why I’m reluctant to do this is because I’m quite certain that this will decrease the mass appeal of the website. So when we do it we’ll do it with the expectation of decreasing the amount of donations. Reasons are:
- Currently our site is kind of gender neutral already since we don’t just use the male version but male and female versions alternate (see https://blog.zeit.de/glashaus/2018/02/07/gendern-schreibweise-geschlecht-maenner-frauen-ansprache/ for a longer explanation). There are at least some people who care about a gender neutral language who prefer this approach (it was also the new and progressive way to do it when I was at the university).
- The vast majority of Germans don’t use a gender neutral language themselves and I would assume that most don’t want it to be used in general. I don’t have a data source for the latter but the fact that pretty much all newspaper don’t use gender neutral language different to ours seems to be a clear indicator for that. This obviously doesn’t mean that one shouldn’t do it, just that it’s not mainstream yet. Obviously it’s very different with different demographics. Eg when I think of people I’m close with I know several who are kind of actively annoyed with gender neutral language but they are all 40+. It’s not because they are opposed to the concept but because they are used to a different language and it make the language less appealing for them. I tend to agree (I’m also 40+). For me it’s the same as with vegan food. It’s the right thing to do but it’s just not as appealing as the stuff I’m used to. Talking to EAs who attended university during the last ten years I’m sure it will be quite the opposite.
I recently discussed this with a friend and found a poll among Wikipedia authors from 2019, showing that a clear majority prefer the generic masculine over gender-neutral alternatives. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Umfragen/Formen_geschlechtergerechter_Sprache#Auswertung
I’m still unsure about this, but personally I found that discussing this topic for a few hours has not convinced me of the importance of using those new gender-neutral forms, except insofar it is really important for some fraction of students who tend to be politically active and open to EA ideas and who feel like women are kind-of actively excluded in the common language. It also feels to me a bit like an in-group signal of progressive groups and I cringed a few times when I felt socially compelled into using it.