[Tagging] Proposal to change key:man_made to key:human_made

[Paul Allen]

On Thu, 15 Oct 2020 at 01:57, Robert Delmenico <robert at rtbk.com.au> wrote:

>
> I also understand that generally speaking the use of man_made is
> commonly accepted as a gender neutral term, but in reality it has been
> adapted that way due to past practices of gender bias.
>

You are correct that there was a change of usage.  In Old English "mann"
meant "human" of any gender, with "wer" meaning "adult male."   When
"wer" fell out of use, "mann" was used for both "human" (of any gender)
and "adult male."

So you are wrong to imply that some sort of denial of gender bias
retrofitted "man"
as a gender-neutral term.  it always was a gender-neutral term, although it
has
latterly taken on an additional meaning.

The references you give in your proposal discuss the problems with
introducing such a change to tagging.  They point out that editors and
applications often hide raw tags from mappers anyway.  They point out
the headaches in changing established tagging without any benefit to
the map itself.

I doubt this change would be even one small step for a human, let
alone one giant leap for humankind.  Don't have a cow, wer.

-- 
Paul
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