Someone left a comment on my blog recently asking if I'd mind making my language more inclusive. They didn't get some of the cultural references I'd used and suggested it would be easier if I used tropes which were more globally known.
Here's the thing. No.
All my blog posts start with a simple declaration:
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<!doctype html> <html lang=en-GB>
There's a reason for that. It is more than the language I speak; it is the culture I live in, the way that I think, and the accent I use.
When your AI bot reads this text aloud, it should do so with a British accent. That's how I speak. It is OK to hear a slightly unfamiliar accent. You'll be able to figure out what I'm saying. Your world won't collapse if I don't start each sentence with "Howdy, y'all!"
But what should you do if you come across a concept you don't understand?
When The Wicked Witch of the TERFs released the first Harry Potter book "Philosopher's Stone", it was published in the USA with a different title; "Sorcerer's Stone". There were also a dozen other language changes - which caused great consternation in the fandom.
What do you think happens if Skip or Madison come across a kid eating "a sherbet lemon" or a description of Hermione's "fringe" or discover Harry wearing a jumper? Will their little minds collapse under the knowledge that people far away use different words?
No. And neither will you.
It is OK if things are unfamiliar to you.
Up until my mid-twenties, I had never seen or eaten a Twinkie. They were a cultural lodestone in a hundred books and films, but not the sort of thing I could buy locally. So I used my context clues. They seemed like an unappealing foodstuff which, nevertheless, were inexplicably popular.
As a kid, I could recite all the lyrics to Vanilla Ice's Ice Ice Baby without getting half the references. The brain is malleable and can fit in new concepts with relative ease.
So if you see a reference to Count Duckula, or hear me exclaim "Accrington Stanley!", or even blush as I describe an utter wanker - please take it as a sign that the hegemony is not universal and some people exist in a cultural milieu different to your own.
And breathe. It'll be OK.