On Sunday, April 19, 2015 at 9:05:54 AM UTC+5:30, Steven D'Aprano wrote: > On Sat, 18 Apr 2015 06:44 am, Larry Martell wrote: > > > On Fri, Apr 17, 2015 at 4:31 PM, Marko Rauhamaa wrote: > >> beliavsky: > >> > >>> If your target audience is women, I think you should have termed it > >>> the Django Womens Workshop rather than the Django Girls Workshop. > >>> Referring to adults as children can be seen as condescending. > >> > >> You got it wrong. The name is not offensive. > > > > Most adult woman I know take offense at being called a girl. > > > Surely it depends on the context, and also the size of the chip on the > person's shoulder. > > Consider a white male speaking to an adult black American male and referring > to him as "boy", especially if the white person is younger than the black > person. That would be demeaning and offensive due to the history of slavery > and apartheid in the US and the continuing status of blacks (especially > black males) as second-class citizens in the US. > > Likewise an Englishman to an adult Indian, although it would probably come > across as more laughable than offensive. The British Empire is long gone, > and India is an independent nuclear-armed regional power, don't you know? > > On the other hand, I don't know about where you are, but here in Australia > we say "I'm going on a night out with the boys", or if we are women, we > say "a night out with the girls". We might say things like "Oh yes, Susan > is one of us girls" which is quite different from "one of us women". (One > of us *women* is just a comment on Susan's sex, but *girls* is a comment on > her membership of a circle of friends.) > > Sometimes we say "lads and lasses" when we want to be less formal > than "ladies and gentlemen". > > And of course anyone who has watched Oprah will have heard "You go girl!" as > a positive term of support. > > It is very common and acceptable to use "girls" or "boys" to refer to adults > when it is used in an inclusive sense. In other words, when the speaker > includes themselves, or at least there is the possibility of being > included. "I wish I could be one of the boys, but I'm just to shy to join > in." > > In *this specific instance*, all you guys complaining about Django Girls > have completely missed the important fact that the name of the group > is "Django Girls". Django Girls was started by two women, Ola Sitarska and > Ola Sendecka, and their Github page says: > > "Django Girls is a programming workshop for women." > > So it is not a Django workshop for female children. It is not a workshop > belonging to girls who happen to use Django. It might not even be a > workshop teaching how to use Django! (Although it probably will be.) It is > a Django Girls workshop, just like we might say "Microsoft technology" > or "Washington politics". >
I remember being taught in school: "lady" is respectful "woman" is disrespectful When I was recently in Canada I learnt its exactly the other way round there -- [And probably more so in US where the chips on shoulder are heftier] I was told by a lady -- uh... woman -- not to say 'ladies' but 'women' -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list