# bemanning



## Robinvn

Hoi!

Volgende regel komt voor in mijn vertaling:
_Een selecte groep van jongens en meisjes op de USS Independence mixen die informatie tot multimediaproducten._

Het probleem is dat ik jongens en meisjes nogal kinderachtig vind. Graag zou ik het vervangen door _bemanning_, maar dan komt het feit dat er zowel mannen als vrouwen aan boord zijn niet zo uit de verf (zoals in de brontekst wel het geval is).

Iemand suggesties?
Bedankt,
Robin


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## optimistique

'mannen en vrouwen' misschien, ipv 'jongens en meisjes'? 

Als je graag 'bemanning' wilt gebruiken, zou je misschien kunnen kiezen voor 'gemengde bemanning', of voor 'de bemanning, bestaande uit zowel mannen als vrouwen".


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## Robinvn

Bedankt voor de suggesties!


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## elroy

It is my understanding that in common usage, "bemanning" is gender-neutral, so I don't really see what the problem is.

Is it because the root of the word is "mann"?  Are you worried that feminists might find the term sexist?

My Dutch is too basic for me to offer any other suggestions, but I would appreciate an explanation as to why you feel that "bemanning" cannot refer to both men and women.


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## optimistique

elroy said:
			
		

> It is my understanding that in common usage, "bemanning" is gender-neutral, so I don't really see what the problem is.
> 
> Is it because the root of the word is "mann"?  Are you worried that feminists might find the term sexist?
> 
> My Dutch is too basic for me to offer any other suggestions, but I would appreciate an explanation as to why you feel that "bemanning" cannot refer to both men and women.



In fact, I hadn't even thought of the fact that 'bemanning' has 'man' as root. I don't think that's the problem at all. 

It's just that in general the crew of a ship consists mostly of men (especially in the navy). When I say 'sailor', you probably won't think it's a woman. So theoretically it's gender-neutral, but practically it has a preference for consisting of men. So it's normal for the 'bemanning' to consist of men, but when there are also women on board, then you'l have emphasize this through additional words.
So it's not that it cannot refer to both gender, it's just that it's not obvious that it refers to women as well as to men.


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## elroy

Oh, I see.   Thanks for the explanation.

I guess in this context it was important for Robin to emphasize the presence of _both men and women_ on board.


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## Robinvn

I couldn't explain it better, optimistique, thanks.
Actually in the book, all text that follows isn't clear if I don't state that there are men as well as women in the ship's crew. I was thinking of other words than men and women because it is also significant that they are all very young. That's why I tried 'jongens en meisjes' in my first post.
I'll think it over once more, thanks for your suggestions!
Robin


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