Talk:glowboy

Must a glowboy be male? The name suggests so, but then, I have seen females who have been called "mailman" and males who have been called "meter maid". In the absence of further information, I am not sure about that edit from Equinox. On the other hand, I doubt many nuclear power plants would give woman who are not past their reproductive years the job, just because of the potential future birth defects.Kiwima (talk) 23:54, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

Well, we seem to regard -man as a suffix, because it's in so many very old words, and is pronounced with the schwa (unlike man in general), and (as you say) these days can often refer to a woman; I don't think those things are true of boy. Can you think of any other -boy words that can refer to a female? I don't think e.g. paperboy can. Equinox ◑ 23:57, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

I have at least once seen the term waterboy refer to a girl. And (while not using -boy as a suffix) I, myself, was a boyscout when I was an adolescent girl.Kiwima (talk) 01:07, 14 March 2015 (UTC)

I am happy enough to let the edit stand, but it is an iteresting question on these gendered suffixes. It seems to me that the violation of the prima facie gender on these terms occurs when there is no readily available gendered term for the other sex - hence paperboy is always male, because papergirl is in use, but when a girl served the role of waterboy, the term waterboy was still used because "watergirl" is not really a word. Similarly with mailman, where there is no real use of "mailwoman" - instead we have moved to the gender neutral "letter carrier" or (here in New Zealand) "postie" Kiwima (talk)

I agree there are some gender issues that are worth considering around here (e.g. I used to write "Xwoman" definitions along the lines of "a female Xman", which establishes the man as the norm and the woman as the deviant "other"; I eventually decided that wasn't a good way to do it). However, this particular word is quite rare to start with, and (given what I said about boy vs. -man above, and your point about the smaller number of women in the role) I'm doubtful whether we could even locate one WT:CFI-compliant citation referring to a female glowboy. Even so, one could argue that the fact is irrelevant (e.g. perhaps there are no glowboys in Tokelau right now, but that doesn't mean "not in Tokelau" is a necessary facet of the definition). Gawd I dunno. Perhaps something to take to WT:TR for further discussion? Equinox ◑ 01:35, 14 March 2015 (UTC)