Scotland's new 140-page guideline book from the Association of Chief Police Officers has some common sense rules in it: Don't refer to us as "homosexuals," let MTF transexuals use the women's bathroom, and don't touch monks on their heads. Some 7,000 copies are being distributed to officers, who might find their way to the GLBT section, part of which reads, "A transgender person is not breaking the law by using the opposite gender toilet facilities from the gender they were labelled at birth." But inside the force, "the guide has attracted derision for its political correctness," reports The Christian Institute. Maybe that's because the guidebook identifies new no-no words, including gender-specific “policeman”, “manpower,” and “unmanned." Going overboard?
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Seems like a move in the right direction to me.
I don't have any sort of problem with using the term "police officer" instead of "policeman," though the others never really struck me as potentially offensive. Maybe it's because I'm a man. I just always viewed those sorts of terms as using "man" to refer to humanity rather than as a gender. I guess there's an inherent bias there too. But I'd really like to know, and I mean this sincerely, how many people are offended by "manpower" and "unmanned."
This is not going overboard! An official body, tripping over themselves to be non-discriminatory? This is the type of progress that has led to civil union in the UK, and a pretty sparkling equality culture, especially in comparison to less progressive countries (cough, USA).
It is absolutely going overboard. Political correctness is destructive, in part because the "accepted terms" are always changing back and forth, making people unsure how to even talk to each other. It hinders the exchange of ideas and confuses issues.
Obviously people, especially those in authority, should refrain from using intentionally hateful words (f-word, n-word, on and on…), because their role is to protect and lead society, not offend it. But "manpower"? "Policeman"? Seriously?!?!
Idiotic!
It's nice to see an official institution trying hard to stop discriminatory language, but there is such thing as too politically correct. If people are tripping over their words in the name of correctness, then we have a problem. Natural language is best.
They're going about it the wrong way. What they should be doing is making it legal to gays to beat people up for making homophobic comments.
I guess they're damned if they do and damned if they don't…….