[Python-ideas] Retire or reword the "Beautiful is better than ugly" Zen clause

[Antoine Pitrou]

Hi Samantha,

You ask others to be open-minded, but fail to show such an attitude
yourself.  Beauty is a very old and important concept in the history of
human societies, present in most or all of them, and has been the
subject of a wide range of interpretations, studies and theories.

And, as a French person, I have to notice this is yet another attempt
to impose reactionary, intolerant American politics on the rest of the
world (or of the Python community).

Regards,

Antoine.


On Thu, 13 Sep 2018 09:36:42 +0100
Samantha Quan <sammiequan at yandex.com>
wrote:
> First, I'd like to express how grateful I am to see more and more technical communities embrace diversity and inclusivity, particularly big tech communities like Python, Redis, and Django.
> 
> In the spirit of the big recent terminology change, I propose retiring or rewording the "Beautiful is better than ugly" Zen clause for perpetuating beauty bias and containing lookist slur. I realize that Zen is old, but you can't argue that the word "ugly" is harmless, now that society condemns body shaming, and instead promotes body acceptance and self-love. One alternative to that clause I could think of is "Clean is better than dirty", but please do speak up if you have better ideas.
> 
> I ask you to give this change serious consideration, even if it seems over-the-top to you now, because times change, and this will be of great help in the battle for the more tolerant and less judgemental society.
> 
> I understand that this topic may seem controversial to some, so please be open-minded and take extra care to respect the PSF Code Of Conduct when replying.
> 
> Thank you!
> 
>   - Sam
> 
> Some references:
> 
> https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Lookism
> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lookism
>