Re: [PATCH 1/4] Documentation: use singular they when appropriate

On Mon, Jun 07, 2021 at 04:57:45PM +0000, Derrick Stolee via GitGitGadget wrote:

There are several instances in our documentation where we refer to an
anonymous user as "a contributor" or "an integrator" or similar. To
avoid repeating this role, pronouns are used. Previous examples
chose a gender for this user, using "he/him" or "she/her" arbitrarily.

(I am not disagreeing with the series.)

There is value in intentionally defaulting to "she/her", especially in
settings where women are underrepresented. It can be a nice way to
shake the foundations of unconscious bias in the reader's head. See
https://www.askamanager.org/2011/07/why-i-refer-to-everyone-as-she.html
as an example.

Replace these uses with "they/them" to ensure that these documentation
examples apply to all potential users without exception.

However, in this case, I think "they/them" is appropriate as a default.
As you say, this documentation is intended as a guide to potential users
and contributors, and should apply to them. Thanks for writing the
change.

Reviewed-by: Emily Shaffer <redacted>