Washington state bans sexist language

[The Straight Story]

Washington state bans sexist language

(CNN) - The state of Washington is nearing the end of a crusade to rid state documents of "gender biased language."

The bill, which went into effect this week, has changed nearly 3,500 state code sections to include both "he" and "she" as well as various other words.

Freshman is now "first year student," fisherman is now "fisher," and penmanship is now "handwriting," just to name a few.

Washington is not the first to do this. They follow Illinois, Florida and North Carolina, and it seems as though they won't be the last.

http://www.kptv.com/story/22761557/washington-state-bans-sexist-language

[unblock]

1. a germinal moment in ourtory!

somehow "a seminal moment in history" didn't seem right....

[dipsydoodle]

2. You got any manhole covers over there ?

Or ladybirds ?

[customerserviceguy]

8. Uhh, they're "personnel access orifice closures"

Doncha know?

[Matariki]

3. I know some people probably think this is excessive

but it truly is a lesson in how deeply biased our language is in terms of gender.

When you're on the short end of that bias, it can really get you down how prevalent it is....

[korak]

4. Arg.

Rights of Man

by

Thomas Paine

1792

Wimmin ain't got none!

Seriously,

"Man" is gender inclusive

This does nothing but invite ridicule of huwomen!

[LittleBlue]

5. My state?! What shall I call a woMAN now?

Or woMEN?

[Nye Bevan]

6. I hope "human" is now "huperson" (nt)

[MrScorpio]

7. I applaud what they're doing, their hearts are in the right place

But clearly the main culprit here is the English language itself. It's gender inclusive driven.

If we're really going to make a change for the better, we need to change the core of the language itself to accommodate such a fete.