Re: [Randon] Digest for randon@googlegroups.com - 2 updates in 1 topic

[lonnie oldairhead.com]

I second the opinion offered by Emily. Why try to fix something that is not broken?

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Sent: Sunday, December 18, 2022 9:53 AM
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Subject: [Randon] Digest for ran...@googlegroups.com - 2 updates in 1 topic

 

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• [RUSA] inclusive language suggestion from "Between Controls" RUSA e-news - 2 Updates

[RUSA] inclusive language suggestion from "Between Controls" RUSA e-news

"Emily O'Brien" <emilyo...@emilysdomain.org>: Dec 17 04:10PM -0500 As much as I enjoy the quirks of how other languages deal with gendered words, form plurals, decline nouns and pronouns, etc, I think it's silly to work that hard at trying to bring an additional gendered version of a foreign noun into English - especially when we're already accustomed to using the term "randonneur" to mean anyone who engages in "randonneuring" - which is already a French ending with an English ending tacked on. Are we going to talk about "randonneuseing" too?   English does have the -ess/ -er endings for masculine and feminine versions, but we don't apply the -ess ending universally anyway - even without considering the places where people are making a specific effort to stop using it (as in "waitress" and "actress"). When was the last time you heard anyone talk about a paintress, carpentress, gardeness, workess, managess, cleaness, listeness, talkess, dancess, etc? Not to mention a janitrix (since "janitor" has an -or ending as in Latin, that would imply that it would receive a Latin gendered ending, like "aviatrix" or "dominatrix"). Anyone ever call an exterminatrix?   Since English doesn't have genders for nouns otherwise, those gendered endings don't tend to stick colloquially or sound right unless there's some specific reason why the gendered association has a specific connotation - prince/princess, for example.   So that all makes me think we should just stick with "randonneur" for everyone, since that's what most people say anyway; and society is generally moving away from using the feminine endings we do have natively. And "randonneur" is pretty close to the -er ending anyway.   I tend to think using the word "randonneuse" sounds a tad pretentious anyway.   Emily       On Fri, Dec 16, 2022 at 8:25 PM 'ROBERT WELSH' via randon <   -- ----------------------------------- Dill Pickle ... gear for the extra mile   www.dillpicklegear.com -----------------------------------

Duncan <recum...@gmail.com>: Dec 18 07:35AM +1000 Well said Emily, I agree with you.   .. Duncan   On Sun, 18 Dec 2022 at 07:11, Emily O'Brien <emilyo...@emilysdomain.org> wrote:

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[Greg]

On Sunday, December 18, 2022 at 1:29:23 PM UTC-8 Epic Wolff wrote:

I second the opinion offered by Emily. Why try to fix something that is not broken?

French riders at PBP are often surprised by what they see as U.S. riders' penchant for ~1940's-inspired Rando bicycles. They're not broken, but many French riders find that sort of bicycle choice to be heavy and cumbersome, and poorly-suited to the task, compared to contemporary options. 

Perhaps that image is reinforced by us using 1940's French language, too?

Your choice!

-Greg, who appreciates the properties and history of his steel frame, but enjoys the appropriateness of his carbon fork & cranks