It would be interesting to get some dancers' reactions to these various terminologies. 

Has anyone thought of using two different pairings in a dance evening and then asking the dancers which they thought was clearer to their ears and which they preferred? Of course this is even a bigger burden on the caller.

On May 29, 2015, at 11:43 AM, Ron Blechner via Callers wrote:

Erik, neat cheat.

For reference, my own thoughts on the terms, and a general FAQ about gender free terms:
http://contradances.tumblr.com/post/113203981035/genderfree-contra-dance-term-faq

I have not updated it with gems / rubies.

I like jets / rubies, but I think gems / rubies is better:

1. I disagree that the "em" sound is harder to hear than the "et" in jet. Good mic skills / having a foam pad on a mic will dull the sharp "ts" in "gents", and thus, "jets". Because a loud "ts" on the mic is harsh. Therefore, this argument against "gems" is not an issue.

2. A lot of people don't know "jet" is a gemstone, and so they think airplane. I've had a lot of gender free dancers complain about this.  Given that the terms need to serve the LGBTQ community, and not merely us as callers, I take this complaint seriously. Thus, "gem" is a better choice.

3. Yes, a ruby is a gem. So what? They're both gems.

4. There's a gender connotation to thinking jet = airplane, since it's either phallic, or people think the NY/NJ football team, or the West Side Story fictional gang. Again, the terms are here to serve the dancers, not merely us.

5. Gem has all the same advantages as jet.

I thus think gem / ruby is a superior pair than jet / ruby.

Ron Blechner

On May 29, 2015 11:32 AM, "Erik Hoffman via Callers" <callers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

We are still using larks and ravens at the Berkeley dance. And, though I don't seem to have too much trouble using different words for different dances -- so far I've used men/women, ladies/gents, bands/bares, trees/squirrels, and larks/ravens without changing my mess of dance notes -- I understand that others can't switch so easily. On this note, at the Berkeley dance a caller recently did the following:

1) asked if anyone had some post-its. When found some
2) wrote "lark" and "raven" on the sticky end
3) cut out these little cheat-sheets
4) covered the words "gents" and "ladies" with the post-it cheats
5) move cheats to next card as needed

Thereby changing their cards to the current words on the fly. I was impressed.

~erik hoffman
    oakland, ca

On 5/28/2015 8:01 PM, Kalia Kliban via Callers wrote:

On Thu, May 28, 2015, Alan Winston via Callers wrote:

On 5/28/15 12:30 PM, Ron Blechner via Callers wrote:

For those interested in gender free contra dance terms:

1. Do you like or dislike jets / rubies ?

Like. (I'm responding on personal preference alone; I'm aware of some
objections to this, which I don't personally share.)

2. How would gems / rubies compare?

Less good, because the soft "ms" would make the call less clear. Also,
rubies _are_ gems, so this is confusing.

Me too.  I haven't yet tried calling with the jets and rubies terminology, though I've used bands/bares and larks/ravens.  I can't say I'm eager to add yet another set of translated cards to my files.
Kalia Kliban
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