[GTALUG] September talk with Marcel Gagne is on youtube

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: Evan Leibovitch via talk <talk at gtalug.org>

| On Mon, 24 Sep 2018 at 23:29, Kevin Cozens via talk <talk at gtalug.org> wrote:

| >  The project called
| > GIMP hasn't been called "The GIMP" in several years.
| 
| Sheesh. THAT is worth calling out?

| If use of "The GIMP" is archaic, who's it hurting?

Here's a possible explanation.  I'm not speaking for Kevin but only
for myself.  I didn't call this out, but you asked, so here's my
thinking.  None of this is about Marcel's talk; it's about the project 
name.

The word "gimp" is a derogatory word for certain physical
disabilities.

The phrase "the gimp" identifies a person by his or her disability.
Identifying people by their disabilities is definitely a Bad Thing.  I
presume that I don't need to explain this after perhaps 40 years of
advocacy on this matter.

Naming the software "The GIMP" linked this software to this
unfortunate phrase.  Renaming it "GIMP" reduces this, although the
name still makes me uncomfortable.  It's hard to forget something once
you've thought it.

Contrast this (a bit) with "git".  That too is an insult, but not (in
my mind) associated with any disability.  It turns out that it did
originally mean "bastard" but I feel that it has lost that association
(as has the word "bastard" when used as an insult).  So "git" doesn't
bother me although I would have given it a different name.