Quote:
Originally Posted by Jen_Smith
I think the [other] offensive bit here is that it's 'lady' editor, not 'female' editor. 'Lady' and 'gentleman' when appended to a job-role tend to have connotations of amateur/dilettante/hobbyist that 'male' and 'female' don't. Think 'gentleman-thief' or 'lady explorer'. Comes from the days when ladies and gentlemen didn't have to work, so if they had a job it was a hobby rather than a necessity.
And surely female editors aren't so unusual (unlike nine-foot-tall giants) that it would be natural to remark on it every time one is mentioned? In medicine nowadays, the proportions of the sexes is so near equal that a doctor's gender isn't mentioned unless it's relevant (e.g. a patient has requested a male, or a female, doctor for modesty reasons).
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Again, haven't read the article, but the whole article was supposed to be on women in Sci/fi -- a historical type of thing. So I would assume that it was established early on that they would be talking about women. There shouldn't be a need to add lady. But not having read the article, I can't say if it was overall attitude that set people off, trolls, or what.
I did read the rebuttals as those were posted online (I think they were scans.)