I've been going through a lot of historical biographies lately and am
surprised to see how often archaic gendered terms such as poetess,
sculptress, and aviatrix crop up in Wikipedia articles. I know some of
these come from the older sources such as the 1911 Britannica, but in
other cases their inclusion is the result of decisions being made by
editors. There's currently a discussion on [[Talk:Amy Johnson]] over
whether she should be referred to as an aviatrix, for instance.
I'm wondering how this has been dealt with previously and if there are
specific policies surrounding such uses. I've found the essays
[[Wikipedia:Gender-neutral language]] and [[Wikipedia:Use modern
language]] and note that [[WP:MOS]] says "use gender-neutral language
where this can be done with clarity and precision". It seems as if
despite these fairly clear precepts, the use of these terms persists.
Are there any archaic terms where it has been broadly agreed that using
them is not encyclopedic? I would be much obliged if anyone could point
me to previous discussions about this.
~Gobonobo
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