Cultural Issue with the Foot Logo

["Theppitak Karoonboonyanan" <thep linux thai net>]

Hello,

I have thought about this issue for a while whether it
should be raised or not, as the logo has been in use
for a long time. And I'm not sure if it's ever discussed
anywhere about the cultural issue with the GNOME's
foot logo, which may obstruct GNOME promotion in
some way.

In Thai culture, and I'm pretty sure also in the nearby
regions, showing foot is considered rude, as it's the
lowest part of the body. And a variation of the word
'foot' in Thai is used for scolding, in the tone close to
"f**k" or "b*tch" in English.

I have had hard times introducing GNOME to Thai people
who never know about it before, and their reactions
are awkward when seeing the foot logo. I have to
explain that it's a footprint, not the foot itself. But that
doesn't help much, as footprint also indicates treading
with a foot.

Some people simply refuse GNOME with the reason
that it's impolite.

That sometimes makes me feel uncomfortable to
promote GNOME to new users as-is, or with
distributions that try to keep upstream look-and-feels
like Debian. But with Ubuntu or Fedora, where the
main menu logo is replaced with something else,
that's more OK. Just avoid letting them see the animated
foot on Epiphany or Nautilus, until they are familiar with
GNOME enough.

I don't know if this is an issue for other cultures.
Just want to raise it for awareness on an obstacle.

Should there be an alternative logo for GNOME?
For example, using a gnome head instead is OK.

Regards,
-- 
Theppitak Karoonboonyanan
http://linux.thai.net/~thep/