Now it really is getting stupid

If you see a Policeman, its fine and always will be fine to call him a policeman. If you see a Policewoman, then again it is fine to call her a policewoman.

You would never need to call either of them a police person, thats just plain mental.

If you call a Policeman a policewoman, then again you are just a bit mental, and vice versa.

Thats probably the silliest analogy ever used in conjunction with a story about sexism.

 

I'm watching the re-runs of London's Burning and they have reached the PC stage where they are not firemen, or firewomen. They are firefighters. As in "Thank God, the firefighter is up his ladder rescuing me!" I bet those about to be burned in a house fire don't consider what is the right term to use.

 

No you are missing my point, it seems that there is hardly a week goes by without somebody making a fuss about something that bypasses the rest of us without even raising an eyebrow.
It’s not ironic either because I’m not looking for stuff to complain about, it comes to me.Neither am I complaining as such Or making a complaint to a specific person or firm I am just raising a point on here about something that annoys me. If everybody stopped doing that , there would be nothing on here.

 

This has all got too stupid for words now in my opinion.
The one that gets me is how the term 'actress' has disappeared from use. They're all just 'actors' now, apparently.
Why would a female actor be offended by being called an actress.....?

 

I bet they wouldn't like to be called mister instead of mistress

 

Does any of this impact your life in any way? Stop being permanently offended you’ll have a coronary or when there is summat to be offended about you’ll have disgust fatigue and not be able to do it.

 

To me, that just shows how wide spread the problem is. The sooner companies catch up the better.

I honestly don’t understand how people can’t see that it is wrong that an official letter uses the term ‘men’ twice when they have women working for them and how somehow it’s the person pointing it out is the one in the wrong. If nothing else it is factually inaccurate. Why would anyone defend them writing incorrect information, before we even get onto the point of whether people should be offended or not.

 

But does it matter? if I was in the AA and got a letter, the only thing that would matter was recovery rates, I would have just breezed past the rest.
The fact remains that firms are now at the mercy of anybody who takes umbrage, whether serious or malicious,and it costs them unnecessary time and money. The company I work for had to bin a load of stuff last year because ONE woman made a lot of noise about her not liking it , we had hundreds of posts in support from both sexes, she had very few but because she had the biggest 'mouthpiece' we binned it because it just wasn't worth the hassle

 

I’m not sure she’d go as far as offended but a good friend of mine prefers not to be referred to as an actress. I’ve never asked her to explain why though, I've always just considered that as a female and an actor her opinion on the matter would outweigh any objection I might choose to make, were I so inclined.

 

Head’s gone.

 

One of the good things about threads like this is it should make you think how you address & refer to people, which if you are a polite person you hopefully will get right.

For years and years I always referred to female bar staff as "barmaids". As a 53 year old bloke, when I was younger that was the phrase.
A good few years ago now I thought about it & decided it could be taken as a derogatory term, as a male bar person is was a "barman".
I tend to refer to everyone as one of the "bar staff", if I don't know their name now. I don't think anyone took offence, but I don't really know & I feel better in myself for using a more modern way of addressing people. The English language has modernised itself massively over the years & obviously a lot of old Victorian words are now sware words, even though they weren't back in the day.

 

Why is it OK for there to be a Women’s Institute?

 

Another one who doesn’t get it.

 

Another one who gets far more than you give him credit for!

 

They'd be complaining loud enough if the Oscars only had best Actor.

 

Are yous serious? Get a grip! What "problem."? Why is it a problem? Only in your head and a few other perpetually offended types. Far more important things to worry about. Try to get a sense of perspective.

 

Not if they were eligible for it. If, however, it only had a best actor category that was solely for men and no category at all for women then I think they would have fair grounds to complain.

 

Apart from this one sentence, I'm not going to dignify that angry little rant with a reply.