[ Thanks to Britta Wuelfing for
this link. ]
“According to the Ubuntu Community page, Ubunteros (aka
Ubuntites) are Ubuntu activists. This Ubuntero name has been used
for the past few years, but now there is discussion about changing
it to Ubuntista, or another gender-neutral word.“Another suggestion is to allow female members to use
‘Ubuntera,’ but that doesn’t sit well with some community members –
male and female – who don’t think announcing one’s sex is the
answer, either. Sarah Hobbs wrote, ‘Honestly, I have more of a
problem having to declare a gender, or use a full name, than being
called a made-up word, with possible male-overtones.’“Leigh Honeywell offered insight into the issue of
gender-neutral language, and recommended Douglas Hofstadter’s
‘Person Paper on Purity in Language’ and ‘The Handbook of Nonsexist
Writing,’ by Casey Miller and Kate Swift. She later clarified that
‘… ‘non-sexist writing’ is the technical term for wanting to do
the Right Thing when it comes to gender in writing, not any sort of
accusation that there was sexism involved in the selection of this
name in the first place.'”