A few days ago I posted to LinkedIn:
I have successfully replaced “salesman / salesmen” in my vocabulary with “salesfolk”.
Not only is it gender-inclusive, but honestly? It’s just a better word.
Someone said (in response to this), “Didn’t you folks needlessly name and gender your software packages?”
They’re referring to* our Minion Enterprise and Minion Maintenance mascots: Hiro, Zoe, Codex, and Emmett. (They’re very cute. You can see them on MinionWare.net pages.)
I replied:
“Yes. We created mascots for each product, and gave them names. Of course they’re fictional creatures, and robots besides, and so don’t need genders.
“But with any creation you make choices. I could write a story with all gender-neutral (or genderfluid) characters if I chose to…or I could have a mix of genders. That’s a creative process.
“The difference with “salesfolk” is that we’re referring to real people. There are plenty of women who are sales professionals. There are also gender-neutral and genderfluid folks who are in sales. The difference between “needlessly name[ing] and gender[ing] your software packages” and using courteous, inclusive language is this:
“___We’re not hurting the fictional robot mascots by assigning them a gender.___ People, on the other hand, deserve consideration and respect. (I expect people to call me Jen, not Jennifer or Jenny or Brian. How could I then be okay with calling a woman “he”? I can’t.)”
*Oh hey, notice how I used “they” to refer to the person that commented? And it’s totally fine!