No crossposting might explain it, yes - although crossposting has always made sense to me (largely because without advertising, no one would bother to read the damn things LOL).
I've been thinking about the 'singlet' thing since I commented, too, and the use of language. Just as an aside here, I'd find the use of that word jarring too, since to me, it's terribly old fashioned and just not particularly current any more, except in a way that sets a character's class, more than anything. But then, that's Brit society for ya ;-)
There's more than one can of worms here, I think. First off, the perennial argument - just how far should a non-US author go, in narrative, to write in US language. My preference, as writer and beta, is to go for the most nationality-neutral phrasing, the mid-Atlantic version, because there's no point in throwing any proportion of one's readers out of the story if it can be avoided. So I'll avoid 'whilst', which is more natural to me, for example. In the case of 'singlet', specifically - 'vest' would be more natural to me, which would confuse *you*, and 'tank top' might be more natural to *you*, which would confuse the hell out of *me* and also inspire undue hilarity (think Gumbies in Monty Python, or Jack in a jumper *g*). So I'd go for 'muscle shirt', which would make sense to both. But I don't know where other people would draw the line, or even where I would, necessarily.
But there's a wee trend I've noticed amongst some non-US writers, almost a defiance about the language they use, and refusal to change what comes most naturally to them. I don't know where it's arisen from - maybe from a period of intense criticism some years ago in fandom about native spelling and grammar usage, when it almost felt that non-US fans shouldn't be writing fic about a US show at all. Maybe too from the fact that non-US folks are very used to buying and reading printed material from the States and are used to reading over the differences, so they don't see why the reverse shouldn't be true. Maybe even connected with the rise in anti-US feeling, which seems to be increasingly prominent even over here :-( Whatever, I'm not endorsing it, just noticing it quite a bit more recently than previously.
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I've been thinking about the 'singlet' thing since I commented, too, and the use of language. Just as an aside here, I'd find the use of that word jarring too, since to me, it's terribly old fashioned and just not particularly current any more, except in a way that sets a character's class, more than anything. But then, that's Brit society for ya ;-)
There's more than one can of worms here, I think. First off, the perennial argument - just how far should a non-US author go, in narrative, to write in US language. My preference, as writer and beta, is to go for the most nationality-neutral phrasing, the mid-Atlantic version, because there's no point in throwing any proportion of one's readers out of the story if it can be avoided. So I'll avoid 'whilst', which is more natural to me, for example. In the case of 'singlet', specifically - 'vest' would be more natural to me, which would confuse *you*, and 'tank top' might be more natural to *you*, which would confuse the hell out of *me* and also inspire undue hilarity (think Gumbies in Monty Python, or Jack in a jumper *g*). So I'd go for 'muscle shirt', which would make sense to both. But I don't know where other people would draw the line, or even where I would, necessarily.
But there's a wee trend I've noticed amongst some non-US writers, almost a defiance about the language they use, and refusal to change what comes most naturally to them. I don't know where it's arisen from - maybe from a period of intense criticism some years ago in fandom about native spelling and grammar usage, when it almost felt that non-US fans shouldn't be writing fic about a US show at all. Maybe too from the fact that non-US folks are very used to buying and reading printed material from the States and are used to reading over the differences, so they don't see why the reverse shouldn't be true. Maybe even connected with the rise in anti-US feeling, which seems to be increasingly prominent even over here :-( Whatever, I'm not endorsing it, just noticing it quite a bit more recently than previously.
Damn, this turned into a ramble! Stopping now.