Washington state gets rid of sexist language
Claudine Zap
July 3, 2013


In Washington state, the word "freshman" is out. And "first-year student" is in. In total, 40,000 words have been changed as part of an effort to rid state statutes of gender-biased language.

The bill, signed into law earlier in the year by Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee, went into effect this week.

And it was no small task. "This was a much larger effort than I had envisioned. Mankind means man and woman," Democratic state Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles of Seattle told Reuters.

"Fisherman" is now a "fisher." "Penmanship" is called "handwriting." And "manhole cover" is, well, still "manhole cover." Some words don’t have an easy replacement.

Others do: "His" is now “his and hers.” "Clergyman" is now "clergy." "Journeyman plumber" is now “journey-level plumber,” according to the Daily Mail.

According to Reuters, Washington is the fourth state to officially remove gender-biased language from the law. Others are Florida, North Carolina and Illinois. Nine other states are considering similar gender-neutral laws.

"Words matter," Liz Watson, a National Women's Law Center senior adviser, told Reuters. "This is important in changing hearts and minds."

France recently officially banned the term "mademoiselle" from official documents. The Gallic term means "miss," and French officials contended it forced women to acknowledge their marital status.

The French also bid adieu to "maiden name," which they dismissed as "archaic." They should know: Paris only recently got rid of a law that banned women from wearing pants.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/washington-state-gets-rid-sexist-language-162549523.html

This may seem laughably ridiculous at first but it's more liberal attempts at gender neutralism. "Changing hearts and minds" (as she says above) so the distinctions between men and women are minimized, if not erased. I'm not always ranting about this because it's simply a figment of my imagination.

Only the clueless don't get that whenever possible it is referable to have gender neutral terms. Chairman became "chairperson" decades ago, and for the better. Damn straight it changes hearts and minds. When I was growing up if a girl was innterested in medicine she would be told she could become a nurse, while a boy would be told he could be a doctor. Ivy, do you really want to go back to that?

Here's maybe one time I tend to agree with Ivy.
Language is a dynamic thing and can't be changed administratively. For example, I bet, that in 20 years or so, you still won't find the expression "His or hers" in other than academic or administrative texts. It's just to inefficient.

In German it's even worse. Right now they get rid of the word "Student", because its grammatical sex is male, which doesn't always match the biological sex. (For example the words for victim, member, girl are neutrum, person is female.)

No way, Only the clueless would think that way. Look at things today- Johnny serves the people as a nurse and Susie is now a great doctor. Aren't we all glad that the people back then didn't know everything?
That only real ballbusters come out to make a stink on making things gender neutral or bitching about people showing any religious items in public places. Thank the lord that we still have some people who will stand up and say enough of this crap.

And look how far we have come- From riding in only the back of the bus to living in the White house! Isn't the world a wonderful place.
That there will always be hope for the little Johnnys and Susies of the world. That ballbusters will not keep them down also.

No, it's not preferable. You, as a liberal, simply buy into a worldview where the differences and roles between the genders are downplayed. It's sick and it's wrong. That's quite different from a girl being told to be a nurse. Nobody needs this social re-engineering by liberals.

This is so dumb. People who came up with this need to actually do something with their time other than worrying about words.

This is beyond retarded. The only point of this crap is to demonstrate that a certain kind of narrow upper middle class liberal is morally "superior" to the general public. And I'm saying this as a pretty moderate Democrat.

What's really pathetic about this sort of thing is that it distracts ostensible "progressives" from pursuing things that really matter to the real world, such as punishing the dickheads who destroyed the economy, like the guys in charge of Wall Street. Those people get away with murder, and the retards on what passes for a "left" on this country spend all their time bellowing about goofy shit like "gender" or whatever.

I really really hate the kind of people who make a big deal out of calling themselves "progressives" instead of "liberals", incidentally.

It's another example of them playing the word game, like with the other things in the article above.

Can't elected officials come up with better laws?

Well if it isn't for dumb laws they would be looking ar adding some more dumb tax on things or fees as they say in NY. (no New Taxes here, just Nnew Fees.)

Actually the reason that hapened was because thr right wing demonized the word "liberal" so they started calling themselves "progressives" for political reasons. The righties also call the opposition the "Democrat" party another stupid word game. Ivy, you are entitled to your opinions, but you are not entitled to make up facts.

Again, you are making up facts. The gender gap has been closing and the roles we play have been evolving for at least five decades. It is not a matter of liberal social engineering, it is simply the evolution of society. Oh I forgot, you guys don't buy into that evolution stuff.

I'll have to start calling the paper boy a paper person now.

Words like chairman or mailman are antiquated.

It's funny, but in another thread several have suggested that using the N-word or other racial slurs are just words, but if we call a female "chairperson," instead of the ill-fitting "chairman," the crap hits the fan.

There is no crap hitting the fan- People are just saying that JUST LIKE the N-word or slurs that IT IS NOT anything to worry about.

How about they worry about the economy, or some other GOVT bullshit that really would help all of us, Instead of Chairman Vs Chairperson.


Sorry your statement as no merit as far as I'm concern.

People can use whatever terminology they want. But the Washington State government actually taking the time and money to do this is ridiculous.

This is complete crap. This is what we elect politicians for? To eliminate the use of words????

Remember our officials don't want us to use "Merry Christmas" they prefer it to be "Happy Holidays"

Yeah, thats because there are people who are Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Atheist, among many other non-Christian demoninations. And which "officials" are you talking about. This "war on Christmas" nonsense was something Bill "I'm Still In The Closet" O'Reilly invented a few years ago.

I don't give a rats ass about Bill. Merry Christmas has been around for ages just like these religions have. Why are the officials making a big deal about it?