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| -Signs, Portents, and the Weather- |
| Berkeley political correctness means we’d get ‘Person-hattan’ |
| 2019-07-24 |
| In which the writer discusses the left's obsession with inventing its own dialect, which will eventually become even more incomprehensible to the rest of us. [NYPOST] You’ve probably heard that the city of Berkeley, Calif., is banning the use of the word "manhole" because it isn’t gender-neutral ‐ meaning it has that deplorable word "man" in it. Instead, the city ‐ where, in case you’re interested, I once had the pleasure of seeing a young woman walking on the street with a live rat adorning her shoulder ‐ wants to use the phrase "maintenance hole" to describe that thing people go butt-first into to fix stuff underground. The city probably could have come up with a better gender-neutral phrase except that "ass hole" ‐ for the butt-first maneuver, you see ‐ was already in use in a much different context. Why am I bringing this up in a column about money and the economy and such? Because I think it’s about time. Those three letters in order ‐ M-A-N ‐ should be barred from the English language, or at least the American version of it, except when someone is actually pointing to a guy who has done something wrong. "That man over there robbed the bank," for instance, would be okay. I’m also bringing it up because the abolition of those three letters could have widespread implications on how we report the economy and business in the years ahead. And I’m going to fix these problems right now before I have an urge to get off my chair and do some manly thing I might regret. Berkeley already fixed the word "manpower" ‐ which is often used in discussions of the economy. The city’s code now says "human effort" or "workforce" will replace "manpower." Pretty awkward, I think. "Manpower" does not mean "workforce" in any economic sense. Like "it took a lot of workforce (manpower) to get the job done" just isn’t right. Instead of "man-power", why not use the word Leslie ‐ a name that can be either male or female? So, to use it in a sentence: "Lesliepower issues have been resolved as the city hired more workers" ‐ of both sexes, of course. It might take a while, but "Lesliepower" will eventually catch on. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #8 #7 SteveS - two 'n's. Doh! I knew that looked funny. A long time since I spoke Krautlich. As for "woman" becoming "woperson", wouldn't the correct spelling be "woe-person"? |
| Posted by: SteveS 2019-07-24 14:33 |
| #7 SteveS - two 'n's. Mann ( Mann(e)s, Männer) Substantiv (m) a erwachsene männliche Person German-English Dictionary |
| Posted by: Bobby 2019-07-24 13:17 |
| #6 So is woman going to become woperson ? |
| Posted by: Rambler in Virginia 2019-07-24 11:04 |
| #5 I was under the impression that the suffix 'man' in words like 'postman' comes from the German indefinite pronoun 'man' meaning 'one' and is already gender neutral. Example: One often sees them - Man sieht Sie oft. I wonder who would be more surprised and appalled at our modern world, Orwell or Huxley? |
| Posted by: SteveS 2019-07-24 10:15 |
| #4 I went through this bs years ago when chair men became chairs. You can't use PERSON because it contains the male "son" to be gender neutral you have to use progeny, as in perprogeny. That's so awkward even proggies will get tired of it. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2019-07-24 08:20 |
| #3 This is why university basement offices next to the leaky sewer pipes were created. |
| Posted by: Angaiting Thising6508 2019-07-24 05:24 |
| #2 Here and I had thought they were going to go for "Manhatin' ". |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2019-07-24 05:14 |
| #1 Is a "Ladies' Man" now only called a "Persons' Person" in Newspeak? |
| Posted by: magpie 2019-07-24 00:31 |