Euro chiefs ban gender-specific words

Here’s an interesting article talking about the fact that the European Parliament has banned gender specific words such as Mrs, Miss (and their equivalents in other languages) in case they offend female MEPs. A guidance pamphlet has been issued ordering the politicians to address female members by their full name only. Other words such as fireman, statesman, sportsman, man-made, headmaster, policeman, male nurse are included in the forbidden list. Officials have also ordered that ‘sportsmen’ be called ‘athletes’, ‘statesmen’ be referred to as ‘political leaders’ and even that ‘synthetic’ or ‘artificial’ be used instead of ‘man-made’.

I wonder if politicians will obey this new rule, how can you make someone change their vocabulary and the way they speak? As far as I am concerned, you can call me anyhow if I get paid as well as my male colleagues with the same job, if I get equal consideration for the jobs I’m qualified for and if I’m not being lied to about my reproductive rights by my employer. Don’t these guys in the EU have anything better to do?

One Response to “Euro chiefs ban gender-specific words”

1. Trilema - Un blog de Mircea Popescu. Postul Saptamanii, 16-23 Martie says:

   22/03/2009 at 11:35

   [...] http://irina.cojo.ro/euro-chiefs-ban-gender-specific-words/03/ [...]

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2. Drerapponry says:

   03/07/2009 at 13:38

   Very interesting blog! Subscribed on rss. Regular will read it

   Reply