Html: Change examples for datalist to something not gender

[ZoeBijl]

When I looked up something about datalist I was surprised by the binary of the example. I know this generates a textbox with the datalist options as suggestions. But felt it unpleasant nonetheless.

<label>
 Sex:
 <input name=sex list=sexes>
 <datalist id=sexes>
  <option value="Female">
  <option value="Male">
 </datalist>
</label>

Can this be changed to something else? Maybe, eh, astronomical objects?

<label>
 Favourite astronomical object:
 <input name=objects list=object-suggestions>
 <datalist id=object-suggestions>
  <option value="Earth">
  <option value="Pluto">
  <option value="The Moon">
 </datalist>
</label>

The same goes for the second example.

[annevk]

Maybe the second example in https://html.spec.whatwg.org/#the-required-attribute should be adjusted too then, though that might be trickier.

[ZoeBijl]

Maybe the second example in https://html.spec.whatwg.org/#the-required-attribute should be adjusted too then, though that might be trickier.

Thank you for pointing that one out. I don't think there is something wrong with that one. But maybe someone else does and they can tell us.

[akattow]

I'd mostly agree with @ZoeBijl - the Bechdel test is a real thing - but the use of the word 'female' over 'women' is not preferred by some women and non-binary communities.

One could argue that the Bechdel test not widely understood or in the common parlance, so a better example could be contrived. Or if you wanted to keep it, you could replace "female". It's not nearly as egregious as the datalist example @ZoeBijl originally identified.

[ZoeBijl]

Perhaps it can be changed to something simpler:

<fieldset>
 <legend>Do you want to receive our newsletter?</legend>
 <p><label><input type="radio" name="newsletter" value="no-dontask"> No, and don't ask me again.</label>
 <p><label><input type="radio" name="newsletter" value="yes-weekly"> Yes, please send it every week.</label>
 <p><label><input type="radio" name="newsletter" value="yes-monthly" required> Yes, please send it every month.</label>
</fieldset>

[gunnarbittersmann]

Can this be changed to something else?

Why something else? Wouldn’t it be a perfect opportunity to spread the word that gender is not binary?

<label>
Gender:
<input name=gender list=genders>
  <datalist id=genders>
    <option value="Female">
    <option value="Male">
    <option value="Non-binary">
  </datalist>
</label>

[ZoeBijl]

Can this be changed to something else?

Why something else? Wouldn’t it be a perfect opportunity to spread the word that gender is not binary?

Personally I'd rather not be confronted with gender stuff if it wasn't necessary.

[tabatkins]

Yes, not to mention that a trinary isn't particularly better than a binary. We can just use something else here.

Re: the required example, I don't have a problem keeping the Bechdel reference in there, but it would probably be good to (1) name it properly (Bechdel-Wallace test) and (2) use the original wording
as they introduced the concept ("men" and "women"). But swapping it out for something else is also fine. (source)

[bathos]

The Bechdel-Wallace example has an unrelated problem I think: its specificity is disproportionate with the concept the example means to illustrate. There is a sweet spot between “foo bar” examples (which fail to communicate by overabstracting) and very specific or colorful examples (which risk failing to communicate by mucking with the signal-to-noise ratio). In particular, sticking with obvious/ubiquitous examples (which, for radio choices, there are many, I think?) can be helpful for audiences whose first language isn’t English.

[annevk]

@bathos happy to take a PR. If you want this tracked for someone else to fix please file a new issue at this point, this one is closed.