Political correctness...

It’s more than that. It’s an acknowledgement that women exist. It’s the end of the world! Arrrgh! ;)

Note: do not mix up gender as in people and gender as in words. In French they are entirely different concepts.

Note: do not mix up gender as in people and gender as in words. In French they are entirely different concepts.

Tell that to la factrice if you’re still on speaking terms!

I have always used gender as a syntactic class, and sex as an animal class. In the evolution from Latin to the Romance languages the neuter gender seems to have fallen by the wayside. Whereas in the northern Germanic languages gender of any kind only remains in the pronouns. Until the discovery of the Anatolian branch of Indo-European (Hittite, Luwian, etc), Sanskrit was the earliest known example, which has three genders masculine , feminine and neuter , so everybody assumed these were standard. Greek, Latin and German have these three too. But the Anatolian languages, with evidence from earlier than Sanskrit, have animate and inanimate for the gender system (and maybe for verbs as well as nouns). Some people believe that the animate/inanimate system was the original setup, with feminine starting out as an inanimate plural (all to do with godesses representing abstract qualities). Others believe that somehow in the evolution of the Anatolian languages the feminine gender got lost, though I do not buy that, myself. There is no male/female distinction even for pronouns in the Anatolian languages, though there are feminizing suffixes (e.g. ishas = lord, ishassaras = lady ). Semitic languages (e.g. Akkadian), on the other hand, seem to have had male/female distinction built in from way back. Earlier still, Sumerian appears to have had separate dialects for male and female speech (EMEGIR, EMESAL).

I assume everyone knows that in certain parts of the UK, you must never ask for a ‘black’ or ‘white’ coffee,?

Stop it! that is just a wind up as I am sure you realise. Someone has been pulling your leg! If someone tried that on me I would ask for a black Americano using a six letter word beginning with n just to make it clear that they were a prat!

I wish it was a wind up. It actually true, Solihull council dismissed a staff member becasue they kept asking for black coffee against the council rules! The person concerned took it to Industrial Tribunal and won his case against the council and was paid out a rather large sum for the distress it had caused them. He was supported by the local coloured community who said it was a stupid rule, and they were not offended by someone asking for a black or white coffee, etc. It made the National news on the BBC and on Midlands Today at the time. This was several years ago now.

When I worked in Local Government, we were ordered not to allow people asking for ‘manhole’ covers call them that, they must be called ‘inspection chambers’ so as not to offend!

A local term of ‘Thanks Love’ for some help given to a male colleague suddenly found themselves being disciplined because the female member of staff objected to the term, claiming it was sexist. It turned out she was not a local and did not understand it was a common expression of thanks in this part of the world. She left not soon after, as no one would work with her because of that incident.

Tell that to la factrice

Thank you for making my point. ;P

I have always used gender as a syntactic class, and sex as an animal class.

Seems to me that being gender confused and being sex confused are entirely different things.

It actually true, Solihull council dismissed a staff member

Link? Searching for “solihull council black coffee” gives me information on which bins to use to recycle food waste (not the black one!).
Leaving out the word council points me at a restaurant to avoid at all costs.

we were ordered not to allow people asking for ‘manhole’ covers call them that

You’d likely get a short reply using words of old Germanic origin ¹. I don’t care what you may like or be required to call them, but to me they are “manhole” covers in much the same way that our species is often referred to as “mankind” (and in its original Proto-Germanic form “mann”, it meant person).

You do not fix gender inequality by changing a few words.

¹ Often misattributed as Anglo-Saxon.

You do not fix gender inequality by changing a few words.

This is indeed true. So often the problem is not with the words, or even with the choice of words, but with the context and the manner with which they are spoken, and with the false associations that are commonly held. Perhaps I might be rash enough to stir up another hornet’s nest, in discussing death. Death of a loved one is painful; we want to show respect and avoid giving pain. Yet it is surely obvious that the dead person is not the same thing as the corpse. We pay respect to the dead person with all kinds of ceremonials and ritual objects like flowers, asserting a linkage between the two which is superstitious. Diogenes the Cynic is said to have been contemptuous of plans for his funeral, not caring what should happen to his body. We are embarrassed by those who mourn and cannot decide whether we should go along with the well-meaning lies or honour them with the presumption that they see through all the nonsense. When do you expect your children to doubt the existence of the Tooth Fairy?

Perhaps I might be rash enough to stir up another hornet’s nest, in discussing death.

Your comments have got my mind working, thinking about a blog article (to begin writing in about half ¹ an hour after tea and kitty walk).

However, political correctness is sort of related to RISC OS if we’re going to be expected to get rid of perfectly functional words due to their use in an entirely different context.

Death, however, might agitate people as a topic not entirely suitable for a forum about our favourite operating system (even in the off topic area). It’s a very touchy subject, especially for those in a situation where they are facing mortality (theirs or that of a loved one).

Therefore, may I direct you towards the other Aldershot to continue this?

¹ Kitty says No.

Of course. In any case, I think I will follow Bernard and Ludwig’s advice about keeping mum.

Del.

In case anybody is interested: https://heyrick.eu/blog/index.php?diary=20220218

I’m now going to go and cry over the Tooth Fairy. I thought she was a blonde Australian.

Next you’ll be telling me there’s no Easter Bunny…

Next you’ll be telling me there’s no Easter Bunny…

Most years, Easter is when Fred (middle cat of age range) demonstrates that there are bunnies locally.
Left to his own devices, and kept outside, he crunches through the skull and front quarters quite happily.
So, the Easter bunny does exist, but is short-lived.

No shortage of cats where I am, but I’ve never seen a bunny. But walk for ten minutes and there are bunnies everywhere but no cats!

Chris – sounds like where you are they’ve wisely partitioned themselves into “cat space” and “bunny space”.

Bunnies, especially the bigger ones, can wound cats.
Cats, on the other hand, are rather fond of bringing bunny pieces home to eat.
It’s better the two don’t mix. The humans in the area really won’t want to deal with the wreckage.
It’s quite offputting seeing a bunny spread over several metres and thinking “my god, I was stroking you yesterday, you little furry psycho” while the big eyed feline beside is purring contentedly, though unsure whether to be proud of the mess or completely denying having anything to do with it (hmm, which option would make the human happy the human believe?)

Bunnies, especially the bigger ones, can wound cats.

Very true. Indeed a well-aimed (or more likely simply lucky) kick to the head from a big buck rabbit can kill a cat. One of my sister’s rabbits when we were kids managed that twice. Most of the village cats kept well away after their first uncomfortable encounter with him. Broken ribs were suspected in several cases, but never confirmed.