With regard to non-sexist terms why do female acting persons call themselves actors, even clearly they are actresses. Why do they need such a term.
I believe it's simply a reflection of the language evolving with time. When you talk about a female author, do you refer her as an authoress? Do you refer a female manager as manageress nowadays? Female director = directrix or directress? Female teacher = schoolmistress? Female caterer = cateress? The list goes on. It has little to do with sexism as it's more to do with consistency.
I deal with request forms from actors, scriptwriters and producers almost on a weekly basis, and I'm seeing an increase in both men and women using 'actor' to describe an actress. Believe me, most aren't exactly the type to be PC, especially older producers, which is why I believe it's more to do with the language evolving than it's to do with a concern about sexism.
It's alright being patronising but no-one im my school called the green blackboard a greenboard. Are you telling me that you would have called it a greenboard ?
There's no convincing the little Englander mob that they didn't, apparently
They used the term Winterfest apparently.
The Bolshevik Boradcasting Corp now using BCE - before common era in preference to BC - before Christ in it's quiz shows now. Don't want to offend any non-Christians after all.
I believe it's simply a reflection of the language evolving with time. When you talk about a female author, do you refer her as an authoress? Do you refer a female manager as manageress nowadays? Female director = directrix or directress? Female teacher = schoolmistress? Female caterer = cateress? The list goes on. It has little to do with sexism as it's more to do with consistency.
I deal with request forms from actors, scriptwriters and producers almost on a weekly basis, and I'm seeing an increase in both men and women using 'actor' to describe an actress. Believe me, most aren't exactly the type to be PC, especially older producers, which is why I believe it's more to do with the language evolving than it's to do with a concern about sexism.
Edit:
Aw, thanks. The credit goes to my brother and his friends who did the educating since I was little.
So we had better start referring to Prince Kate and Prince Anne, now then:D
The Bolshevik Boradcasting Corp now using BCE - before common era in preference to BC - before Christ in it's quiz shows now. Don't want to offend any non-Christians after all.
According to Wikipedia CE/BCE has been in use for over 300 years :
The expression "Common Era" can be found as early as 1708 in English, and traced back to Latin usage among European Christians to 1615, as vulgaris aerae, and to 1635 in English as Vulgar Era. At those times, the expressions were all used interchangeably with "Christian Era", with "vulgar" meaning "ordinary, common, or not regal" rather than "crudely indecent". Use of the CE abbreviation was introduced by Jewish academics in the mid-19th century. Since the later 20th century, use of CE and BCE has been popularized in academic and scientific publications, and more generally by publishers emphasizing secularism or sensitivity to non-Christians.
The Bolshevik Boradcasting Corp now using BCE - before common era in preference to BC - before Christ in it's quiz shows now. Don't want to offend any non-Christians after all.
Who's "they"? And did they use Winterfest instead of Christmas, or as a catch-all for the winter festivals period, like Winterval did?
And loads of places now use BCE, it's nothing to do with the BBC It's to do with being accurate as much as acknowledging not everyone's a Christian. Even if Jesus existed he wasn't born in AD1 (to put it in your terms), as I'm sure you know.
So we had better start referring to Prince Kate and Prince Anne, now then:D
That's actually an interesting one - will royalty die out before the titles/ job descriptions become gender neutral? I think in this country it might.
But yeah, anyone who moans about "actress" disappearing but doesn't call their female medical specialist a "doctress" is....linguistically naive, shall we say.
It's alright being patronising but no-one im my school called the green blackboard a greenboard. Are you telling me that you would have called it a greenboard ?
The Bolshevik Boradcasting Corp now using BCE - before common era in preference to BC - before Christ in it's quiz shows now. Don't want to offend any non-Christians after all.
On your first point: you can't seriously expect people to go around calling what is clearly a 'whiteboard' a 'white blackboard' instead, can you? They're different things - blackboards were written on in chalk, and whiteboards are written on in marker pens. Calling it a 'whiteboard' is just an accurate description of it. It wasn't changed on the basis of potential offence to black people. It's a different type of board, hence it's got a different name.
And on your second point: BCE (Before Common Era) and CE (Common Era) are, admittedly, designed to be more inclusive terms than BC (Before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini). You see them used a lot in academic circles, pretty much as a formal convenience really. The terms BC and AD kind of assume that there was a Jesus Christ, and he was the son of God, when the writers who use the terms may not believe this for a second. As such, BCE and CE are expected to be used across academia to reflect the diversity of beliefs (including non-belief) among academics themselves. You can read into it an attempt to quell potential offence to non-Christians if you want - it's certainly possible to see it that way. But I see it as more of a formality - they're merely catch-all terms that all academics can use, irrespective of their beliefs, in their works. Perhaps the quiz show you watched decided to use BCE and CE for similar reasons to that.
Perhaps the quiz show you watched decided to use BCE and CE for similar reasons to that.
If, for example, it was University Challenge, you would expect it to use academic conventions for dates just as it uses them for scientific units. Also, many teams on the show include a student from outside the UK, so it's fairer to use internationally-accepted conventions.
I manage to not be offensive on a daily basis without even thinking about it. I don't understand why those who object to so-called 'political correctness' have such a hard time.
I manage to not be offensive on a daily basis without even thinking about it. I don't understand why those who object to so-called 'political correctness' have such a hard time.
It's possible that political correctness is exasperating because a lot of the time, it doesn't deal with things that are offensive, but things that are maybe / are potentially offensive, with the bar often set so low as to cause incredulity and irritation. A lot of these things are an attempt to be rid of what have been long thought of as innocuous words, phrases or customs, and the insinuation that to use them now villifies the person doing so when they have none of that intent, causes indignation, annoyance and resentment. It's as simple as that. It's tiresome.
It's alright being patronising but no-one im my school called the green blackboard a greenboard. Are you telling me that you would have called it a greenboard?
What's that got to do with anything. The question isn't what people called it but why they did. Presumably they called it a blackboard because stories about the word blackboard being non-PC are bollocks.
of course I believe it. (that the name blackboard is seem by some to have racist connotations)
A board for writing things on is called a "blackboard". I am perfectly happy referring to any such board as a "blackboard" whatever its colour.
I can see that a white version of this might be a "whiteboard", although it would take me a while to use this term habitually
and you may need a new name for an e-board with electronic features.
and a Dyson is still a Hoover, generically, although a Hoover would never ever be a Dyson. As every brown sugary/caffeine/caramel drink is a "coke"
(in the same way that us slightly oldsters still think of heights in feet and inches - 6 foot tall, rather than 1.83m. distance in feet, how far IS a long jump of 8 metres 51, and weights in pounds and ounces - a new born baby is still 7ibs, 3oz, rather than however many kilos. I might fill up in litres, but my car still does 40 to the gallon, and it's still miles on the map, not kilometres)
I manage to not be offensive on a daily basis without even thinking about it. I don't understand why those who object to so-called 'political correctness' have such a hard time.
Its not really about being rude. The PC Brigade also ruins things by making up wacky rules and telling us what we can or cant say or do (not that I listen to them anyway).
I do agree that the BC/BCE thing is a load of bollocks, and I say that as an atheist who isn't convinced Jesus existed as a person, let alone as a son of god. The calendar is based around when people thought Jesus was around. To deny that or to pretend that it isn't is ridiculous. Might as well go the whole hog and change the numbers or starting point if you're going to do that. We could start with 1 AIC (all inclusive calendar).
No, that particular myth was scotched long ago. The Mail even apologised for repeating it!
Winterfest, maybe.
However the "Winterval" story is perfectly correct. Introduced in Birmingham as a catch all for the decorations that went up to include Diwali and others.
What was a more interesting follow up was the, then, council leaders justification for the name change when being interviewed by John Humphries on Radio $.
Getting more and more flustered, while trying to retian as much political correctness as possible the listeners were treaded with the memorable quote - "look, John, We wouldn't be wanting anyone to confuse Christmas with a religious festival"
I do agree that the BC/BCE thing is a load of bollocks, and I say that as an atheist who isn't convinced Jesus existed. The calendar is based around when people thought Jesus was around. To deny that or to pretend that it isn't is ridiculous. Might as well go the whole hog and change the numbers or starting point if you're going to do that. We could start with 1 AIC (all inclusive calendar).
Yes, I quite agree. I think some people are just using the figleaf of greater accuracy and academic convention in pursuit of a secular agenda. This idea that non-Christian academics don't understand which year is being referred to, unless the 3-letter PC abbreviation for it is deployed, is plainly bollocks.
It's possible that political correctness is exasperating because a lot of the time, it doesn't deal with things that are offensive, but things that are maybe / are potentially offensive, with the bar often set so low as to cause incredulity and irritation. A lot of these things are an attempt to be rid of what have been long thought of as innocuous words, phrases or customs, and the insinuation that to use them now villifies the person doing so when they have none of that intent, causes indignation, annoyance and resentment. It's as simple as that. It's tiresome.
of course I believe it. (that the name blackboard is seem by some to have racist connotations)
A board for writing things on is called a "blackboard". I am perfectly happy referring to any such board as a "blackboard" whatever its colour.
I can see that a white version of this might be a "whiteboard", although it would take me a while to use this term habitually
and you may need a new name for an e-board with electronic features.
and a Dyson is still a Hoover, generically, although a Hoover would never ever be a Dyson. As every brown sugary/caffeine/caramel drink is a "coke"
(in the same way that us slightly oldsters still think of heights in feet and inches - 6 foot tall, rather than 1.83m. distance in feet, how far IS a long jump of 8 metres 51, and weights in pounds and ounces - a new born baby is still 7ibs, 3oz, rather than however many kilos. I might fill up in litres, but my car still does 40 to the gallon, and it's still miles on the map, not kilometres)
You would have a point if we stopped using the word black while they were still black. The fact that we started calling them whiteboards when they changed to being white is a big clue as to why we did it. Or are you suggesting that the change to whiteboards itself was a PC thing?
If the change of name was really PC, why hasn't it happened to other words like blackberry, blackbird, blacksmith, blackmail, etc etc? Do you genuinely believe we had some issue with the word blackboard instead of just changing the word to reflect the new colour? That seems quite CT, tin foil hat and that.
As for Hoover and coke, it isn't the same as referring to an object by a different colour, which would simply seem counter intuitive to most people. Do you still refer to green screen as blue screen?
Comments
I believe it's simply a reflection of the language evolving with time. When you talk about a female author, do you refer her as an authoress? Do you refer a female manager as manageress nowadays? Female director = directrix or directress? Female teacher = schoolmistress? Female caterer = cateress? The list goes on. It has little to do with sexism as it's more to do with consistency.
I deal with request forms from actors, scriptwriters and producers almost on a weekly basis, and I'm seeing an increase in both men and women using 'actor' to describe an actress. Believe me, most aren't exactly the type to be PC, especially older producers, which is why I believe it's more to do with the language evolving than it's to do with a concern about sexism.
Edit:
Aw, thanks. The credit goes to my brother and his friends who did the educating since I was little.
It's alright being patronising but no-one im my school called the green blackboard a greenboard. Are you telling me that you would have called it a greenboard ?
They used the term Winterfest apparently.
The Bolshevik Boradcasting Corp now using BCE - before common era in preference to BC - before Christ in it's quiz shows now. Don't want to offend any non-Christians after all.
So we had better start referring to Prince Kate and Prince Anne, now then:D
According to Wikipedia CE/BCE has been in use for over 300 years :
The expression "Common Era" can be found as early as 1708 in English, and traced back to Latin usage among European Christians to 1615, as vulgaris aerae, and to 1635 in English as Vulgar Era. At those times, the expressions were all used interchangeably with "Christian Era", with "vulgar" meaning "ordinary, common, or not regal" rather than "crudely indecent". Use of the CE abbreviation was introduced by Jewish academics in the mid-19th century. Since the later 20th century, use of CE and BCE has been popularized in academic and scientific publications, and more generally by publishers emphasizing secularism or sensitivity to non-Christians.
And loads of places now use BCE, it's nothing to do with the BBC
That's actually an interesting one - will royalty die out before the titles/ job descriptions become gender neutral? I think in this country it might.
But yeah, anyone who moans about "actress" disappearing but doesn't call their female medical specialist a "doctress" is....linguistically naive, shall we say.
On your first point: you can't seriously expect people to go around calling what is clearly a 'whiteboard' a 'white blackboard' instead, can you? They're different things - blackboards were written on in chalk, and whiteboards are written on in marker pens. Calling it a 'whiteboard' is just an accurate description of it. It wasn't changed on the basis of potential offence to black people. It's a different type of board, hence it's got a different name.
And on your second point: BCE (Before Common Era) and CE (Common Era) are, admittedly, designed to be more inclusive terms than BC (Before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini). You see them used a lot in academic circles, pretty much as a formal convenience really. The terms BC and AD kind of assume that there was a Jesus Christ, and he was the son of God, when the writers who use the terms may not believe this for a second. As such, BCE and CE are expected to be used across academia to reflect the diversity of beliefs (including non-belief) among academics themselves. You can read into it an attempt to quell potential offence to non-Christians if you want - it's certainly possible to see it that way. But I see it as more of a formality - they're merely catch-all terms that all academics can use, irrespective of their beliefs, in their works. Perhaps the quiz show you watched decided to use BCE and CE for similar reasons to that.
If, for example, it was University Challenge, you would expect it to use academic conventions for dates just as it uses them for scientific units. Also, many teams on the show include a student from outside the UK, so it's fairer to use internationally-accepted conventions.
There is no such body as far as I'm aware.
That's not the reason, as someone else has kindly explained.
Why would there be? We're talking about the English language here.
It's possible that political correctness is exasperating because a lot of the time, it doesn't deal with things that are offensive, but things that are maybe / are potentially offensive, with the bar often set so low as to cause incredulity and irritation. A lot of these things are an attempt to be rid of what have been long thought of as innocuous words, phrases or customs, and the insinuation that to use them now villifies the person doing so when they have none of that intent, causes indignation, annoyance and resentment. It's as simple as that. It's tiresome.
What's that got to do with anything. The question isn't what people called it but why they did. Presumably they called it a blackboard because stories about the word blackboard being non-PC are bollocks.
of course I believe it. (that the name blackboard is seem by some to have racist connotations)
A board for writing things on is called a "blackboard". I am perfectly happy referring to any such board as a "blackboard" whatever its colour.
I can see that a white version of this might be a "whiteboard", although it would take me a while to use this term habitually
and you may need a new name for an e-board with electronic features.
and a Dyson is still a Hoover, generically, although a Hoover would never ever be a Dyson. As every brown sugary/caffeine/caramel drink is a "coke"
(in the same way that us slightly oldsters still think of heights in feet and inches - 6 foot tall, rather than 1.83m. distance in feet, how far IS a long jump of 8 metres 51, and weights in pounds and ounces - a new born baby is still 7ibs, 3oz, rather than however many kilos. I might fill up in litres, but my car still does 40 to the gallon, and it's still miles on the map, not kilometres)
because the Spanish word for black is "negro", and English is an all-pervasive language
Its not really about being rude. The PC Brigade also ruins things by making up wacky rules and telling us what we can or cant say or do (not that I listen to them anyway).
Winterfest, maybe.
However the "Winterval" story is perfectly correct. Introduced in Birmingham as a catch all for the decorations that went up to include Diwali and others.
What was a more interesting follow up was the, then, council leaders justification for the name change when being interviewed by John Humphries on Radio $.
Getting more and more flustered, while trying to retian as much political correctness as possible the listeners were treaded with the memorable quote - "look, John, We wouldn't be wanting anyone to confuse Christmas with a religious festival"
Legendary.
Yes, I quite agree. I think some people are just using the figleaf of greater accuracy and academic convention in pursuit of a secular agenda. This idea that non-Christian academics don't understand which year is being referred to, unless the 3-letter PC abbreviation for it is deployed, is plainly bollocks.
Yeah, this.
If the change of name was really PC, why hasn't it happened to other words like blackberry, blackbird, blacksmith, blackmail, etc etc? Do you genuinely believe we had some issue with the word blackboard instead of just changing the word to reflect the new colour? That seems quite CT, tin foil hat and that.
As for Hoover and coke, it isn't the same as referring to an object by a different colour, which would simply seem counter intuitive to most people. Do you still refer to green screen as blue screen?
Who cares?
I certainly don't.
How has it been hijacked?
You're probably not as "non-pc" as you think you are!