I just don’t think that third parties like newspapers should use these kinds of stylings any more than they should allow someone to specify that their name must always be printed in Times New Roman. The headline is super confusing because of this affectation — it seems like you know, a hook that you hang a bell from.
Now I call people whatever they want me to call them. They've surely thought about it more than I have and with so many problems in the world why would I get bent out of shape over saying "they" instead of "she" for someone that I think looks like a woman. Why bother worrying about bell hooks or Kim Dotcom, it's just a waste of energy. People are different and that's that. Some people think I'm weird for studying weapon systems and arms control.
It takes all types and hooks's book "all about love" changed my life. How can I begrudge her choice?
And they apply it inconsistently. "bell hooks" and "iPhone" get their desired capitalization, but "reddit" always came out as "Reddit" (or, sometimes, "Reddit, stylized as 'reddit'"), despite any wishes/requests to just use "reddit."
As far as I'm aware, the proper name of the site was always "Reddit". The logo graphic stylizes it as "reddit", and e.g. Wikipedia points that out for clarity, but official communications use the capital letter.
PhasmaFelis appears to be correct, though. Wikipedia says it’s officially Reddit, and Paul Graham always refers to it as Reddit in old writing. Were you thinking of another source? I understand that you’ve linked to a former staff member’s reddit account, but it just looks like staff members wanted Reddit to be referred to as “reddit” even though that wasn’t the official capitalization of the name.
I do think that people have the right to decide how their name is spelled. If they choose a name that you think is silly or confusing, you have every right to say so, but don't blame the publication for respecting their wishes.
> The headline is super confusing because of this affectation — it seems like you know, a hook that you hang a bell from.
Quite the opposite. Nouns are capitalized in newspaper headlines, so if this were a headline about hooks that you hang bells from, every word in the headline except "of" would be capitalized. As it stands, it's completely unambiguous to anyone familiar with hooks's work.
That is, unless you're taking issue with the fact that her nom de guerre happens to be "bell hooks" in the first place, which was her great-grandmother's name.
