Comments on: Female Traffic Lights

By: Zed

Zed — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 22:28:01 +0000

I didn’t check if this was mentioned, but what of the transgendered population? What symbol do they get?

By: Guen

Guen — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 23:07:57 +0000

I couldn’t believe this when I read it! It is the silliest thing I have ever heard! In Sweden (where I am from), they do all kinds of things to make sure everything is equal. For instance, the conservative party will now make sure their representatives to the European Union have an equal number of men and women. They would never even think of trafic symbols as an issue! Why spend money on something so trivial when there are much more imortant things to correct? After all, a stickfigure is gender-neutral.

By: Mary Ann

Mary Ann — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 22:49:53 +0000

Regarding comment 72628, thanks Mary, for asking. We are doing fine! The fires have subsided and evacuees have gone back to their homes. Some of the churches in San Diego have really shown the community something different by getting out there to help those who have lost their homes to clean up and also to give needed supplies. Praise the Lord that less homes were lost this time than in the previous major fire. Praise the Lord that not many lives were lost. Thank you so much for those who prayed for us in San Diego. The real prayer now is that San Diegans who either lost much or had to fear loss would see the temporal nature of this life and come to see what is really worth living for.

By: Mary

Mary — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 15:27:56 +0000

I think the point is that an overtly masculine symbol is really no more inclusive than an overtly feminine one. Perhaps once it was nearly universally accepted as inclusive, but despite traditionalists’ claims to the contrary, ‘man’ no longer automatically means ‘the human race’ in general American usage. And really, it never has. Though it meant that in some contexts, in others it did not and people had to take sometimes subtle cues as to which was intended. More and more, verbal usage involves ‘humanity’ or ‘humankind’ so that the ambiguity of ‘man’ is not an issue.

I got the impression that the symbol on the lights in Madrid was more overtly masculine than the American-style stick figure. If that’s correct, I think the more proper move toward a generic symbol - more ’stick-figure’ than either masculine or feminine - would be the proper corrective. I agree that adding a ponytail contributes to the problem. I do find it interesting when people get all upset over a female figure ‘representing’ all people, though. If it’s all a symbol, then what’s the big deal about being symbolized by the other gender? Women have for many years had such a situation and the traditionalists now chide long and loud that we should just accept it. Some of them take very loud offense at the tables being turned, so perhaps that should tell them that it is a big deal.

By: Shep

Shep — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 11:39:41 +0000

I always thought my female gender was included in the words ‘man,’ ‘mankind,’ most biblical ‘he’ terminology, and stick man crosswalk signals. Only on bathroom doors did a differentiation of stick figures make any sense at all. This ponytail figure introduces an awareness of difference rahter than encouraging inclusion in the species. I expect now to hear about ‘womankind’ as though we are somehow a different race of people. We are not. We together, not alone, are created in the image of God. We give birth to male and female, and we can use a male looking symbol to describe us both. Using a femal symbol makes the distinction. It is not inclusive. The male symbol contains us both, for woman was taken from man in the beginning.

By: Mary

Mary — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 00:35:28 +0000

Mary Ann, how are you doing? Please update us soon! You’re in my prayers.

By: Mary

Mary — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 00:34:52 +0000

Quite so, FJS!

The biblical creation narrative supports the radical(!) notion that human beings are human first and foremost; male and female are both from the Adam (earthly being). And once the woman was presented to the man, he joyfully observed that finally, there was one like him, not some foreign species ‘opposite’ to him, as too many people try to teach in the church (male allegedly opposite of female).

I like the sneakers/feet ideas. But, I never thought that the US-style stick figure was overtly male or female… just a human walking for ‘walk,’ and a hand raised in the ‘halt’ gesture or a slash-circle in red around the walking figure for ‘don’t walk.’

By: fjs

fjs — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 21:17:40 +0000

I know how we can solve the traffic light thing… how about a picture of a pair of walking feet… men and women both have feet.

It would reveal our common shared humanity as those who walk about on two feet. We could be human first before male and female.

By: Mary Ann

Mary Ann — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 18:01:54 +0000

I agree with LMCC - the walking sneakers idea is quite brilliant! (Hopefully, though, there would never be a debate over heels versus sneakers!)

I haven’t been able to keep up with blogging recently because of the huge fires in San Diego. We live in San Diego and have been standing by in case of evacuation. About 500,000 people have been evacuated from their homes due to the fires in the last two days. (Check nbcsandiego.com for the news.) Please pray that God would contain the fires. Thanks, everyone.