MSWord 2000 'offensive to lesbians,' says rock star

Phantasm66 · Jul 25, 2002

MSWord 2000 'offensive to lesbians,' says rock star
By John Lettice

Disgruntled geologist Alan Vaughan writes complaining about the grammar checker in Microsoft Word 2000, which he says denigrates lesbians. Dykes, as all good geologists know, "are thin sheets of magma that has frozen in cracks on its way up from the hot interior of the Earth."

And other things as well, of course. In Word 2000, if you type "the dykes which cut the granite are 2m wide," the grammar checker will change it to "the dykes who cut the granite are 2m wide." Since Alan told us this we at The Register have been striving to drive politically incorrect visions of burly granite-cutting Heroines of Soviet Labour from our minds, and we suggest you good people do likewise.

We do not, thank goodness, have a copy of Word 2000 to hand, so are unable to check on other permutations of ****. Or indeed dike. The American Heritage Dictionary, which we consulted because it's free, and the OED isn't, tells us that a dike/**** is "1a. An embankment of earth and rock built to prevent floods. b. Chiefly British A low wall, often of sod, dividing or enclosing lands. 2. A barrier blocking a passage, especially for protection. 3. A raised causeway. 4. A ditch; a channel. 5. Geology A long mass of igneous rock that cuts across the structure of adjacent rock."

Or indeed "Offensive Slang - Used as a disparaging term for a lesbian." Presumably Microsoft's grammar checker designers haven't heard of any of the other meanings. Which is odd, considering what they do for a living. ®

source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/28/26328.html

RustyZip · Jul 25, 2002

My god!!!

Havn't these people got anything else better to do??:dead:

And i thought i'd seen it all with straight bananas...

Mind you, thats the probably the work of Dykes too....

StormBringer · Jul 25, 2002

Originally posted by RustyZip
My god!!!

Havn't these people got anything else better to do??:dead:

And i thought i'd seen it all with straight bananas...

Mind you, thats the probably the work of Dykes too....

No they don't have anything better to do. I believe that no matter how hard anyone tries to make things "politically correct", there will be someone who takes offense to something. I personally take offense to all those people who try to make everything "politically correct"

Confusious Say, He who takes offense when none is intended is a fool, he who takes offense when it is intended is a bigger fool.

Phantasm66 · Jul 25, 2002

Originally posted by StormBringer

No they don't have anything better to do. I believe that no matter how hard anyone tries to make things "politically correct", there will be someone who takes offense to something.

True.

And much as we look back to the totally insane things we did in the Victorian era like cover the legs of tables with little trousers because it was thought that looking at a table leg bare might remind a man of a woman's bare leg, so I think that in the future we shall look back at some of the silly politically correct crap we do now and think that its insane. Because it is.

PHATMAN5050 · Jul 25, 2002

:rolleyes: Are ya kidding me? What kind of brilliant person noticed or cared about this. This is similar to racism in the sense that people's racism works both ways, either degrading or favoring. One person might look down on another, while one may be put on a pedistal because of previous notions.

Nick · Jul 29, 2002

Anyone who takes offense to that deserves to be shot.

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MSWord 2000 'offensive to lesbians,' says rock star

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