id	summary	reporter	owner	description	type	status	component	version	severity	resolution	keywords	cc	stage	has_patch	needs_docs	needs_tests	needs_better_patch	easy	ui_ux
12422	Django overrides the default email charset behaviour for utf-8	Simon Blanchard	nobody	"{{{
# Don't BASE64-encode UTF-8 messages so that we avoid unwanted attention from
# some spam filters.
Charset.add_charset('utf-8', Charset.SHORTEST, Charset.QP, 'utf-8')
}}}

The above bit of code in django.core.mail overrides the standard Python behaviour for utf-8 in the Python email module. It would be better to set the charset by calling set_charset() on the Message before sending if needed rather than a global override. This behaviour and assumption is not documented anywhere in Django as far as I can tell. I think this is a case of the framework being a bit too clever. Not everyone using Django is using the django email sending methods nor wants Django to (silently) change the system defaults. 

For example, I use the standard Python email sending methods and was expecting the Python lib to behave as advertised but the encoding of my utf-8 messages kept coming out quoted-printable because of the override above.

"	Bug	new	Core (Mail)	1.1	Normal		charset utf-8	bnomis@…	Accepted	0	0	0	0	0	0