Make the Regulations gender-neutral

[lgarron]

Or at least not male-centric.

Original title of the issue was: "Switch the default gender of the Regulations to "she"?"

Maybe not, but I'm serious about considering it Arguments against this should not be rooted in gender-biased conventions.

[iVinshe]

Why/how so?

Vincent Sheu University of California, Berkeley vsheu@berkeley.edu

On Wed, Jun 5, 2013 at 1:56 AM, Lucas Garron notifications@github.comwrote:

Maybe not, but I'm serious about considering it Arguments against this should not be rooted in gender-biased conventions.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/cubing/wca-documents/issues/40 .

[lgarron]

More of a "why not"?

Like removing "+2" for misalignments, or removing inspection, I think that the first few arguments that come to mind against something like this are really just rooted in bias. ("That's not usually how gender neutral documents are written.", "It would just confuse everyone.", "It seems like an unnecessary way of taking a stance.")

As for why we might, I don't want to re-write essays about gender issues in our society, but it would avoid the implicit presumption that speedcubing is a male-only sport.

[jbmertens]

Pointed out by a competitor during dinner conversation: probably all of the regulations using gender-specific pronouns such as 'he' and 'his' can be re-worded using a gender-neuteral pronoun 'they'/'their' (and plural subjects). Should be just as easy to read, and no disclaimer needed at the top.

[lgarron]

For the record, my reply to @jbcm627 's email with the above note:

I'm interested in trying to change from the male-centric status quo. I think the plural meaning of "they" would easily confuse international competitors.

[lgarron]

By the way, see https://github.com/cubing/wca-documents/blob/she/wca-regulations-2013.md

[lgarron]

Implemented as of 9a7082da933a892a42b976dde2a34a885e403eb8. :-)