Academia, Society

Cardiff Metropolitan University Moves To Deter The Use of Terms Like “Mankind” and “Heterosexual”

Cardiff_Metropolitan_logoWe have been discussing the rollback of free speech on U.S. college campuses as well the adoption of de facto speech codes.  Cardiff Metropolitan University has issued a list of phrases that are now deemed as inappropriate including  “right-hand man” and “gentleman’s agreement” as well as “forefather” and “sportsmanship.”

 

The policy also warns that the phrases “homosexual” and “heterosexual” should not be used as they are “laden with the values of a previous time.”  I am afraid that I am a bit of a dinosaur but those terms seem to still have meaning that are not just some blind bias of “a previous time.”

While I am uneasy with the school enforcing such codes, some of the suggestions are already used by many of us.

Here is the new list and the preferred substitutes:
“Best man for the job” – Best person for the job
“Businessman/woman” –  Businessperson, manager, executive
“Chairman/woman” – Chair, chairperson, convenor, head
“Charwoman, cleaning lady” – Cleaner
“Craftsman/woman” – Craftsperson, craft worker
“Delivery man” – Delivery clerk, courier
“Dear Sirs” – Dear Sir/Madam (or Madam/Sir)
“Fireman” – Fire-fighter
“Forefathers” – Ancestors, forebears
“Foreman/woman” – Supervisor, head juror
“Gentleman’s agreement” – Unwritten agreement, agreement based on trust
“Girls” (for adults) – Women
“Headmaster/mistress” – Head teacher
“Housewife” – Shopper, consumer, homemaker (depends on context)
“Layman” – Lay person
“Man” or “mankind” – Humanity, humankind, human race, people
“Man” (verb) eg man the desk – Operate, staff, work at
“Man in the street”, “common man” – Average/ordinary/typical citizen/person – but is there such a person?
“Man-hour” – Work-hour, labour time
“Man-made” – Artificial, manufactured, synthetic
“Manpower” – Human resources, labour force, staff, personnel, workers, workforce
“Miss/Mrs” – Ms unless a specific preference has been stated – though its common not to use titles at all these days
“Policeman/woman” – Police Officer
“Right-hand man” – Chief assistant
“Salesman/girl/woman” – Sales assistant/agent/clerk/representative/staff/worker
“Spokesman/woman” – Spokesperson, representative
“Sportsmanship” – Fairmess, good humour, sense of fair play
“Steward/ess” – Airline staff, flight attendant, cabin crew
“Tax man” – Tax officer/inspector
“Waitress” – Waiter, server
“Woman doctor” (or feminine forms of nouns eg actress, poetess) – Doctor (actor, poet etc)
“Working man”, “working mother/wife” – Wage-earner/taxpayer/worker
“Workman” – Worker/operative/trades person
“Workmanlike” – Efficient/proficient/skilful/thorough

41 thoughts on “Cardiff Metropolitan University Moves To Deter The Use of Terms Like “Mankind” and “Heterosexual””

  1. I remember, many years ago, when many of these terms were newly being proposed, a lady, who had a strong and powerful character responded to being called “Madam Chair”. She was very angry at the modern usage. “The correct usage is MADAM CHAIRMAN!” she thundered, ensuring everyone in the hall knew it.

    1. Jack,

      Listen to//read/watch infowars.com, zerohedge.com, USAwatchdog.com for 4 to 6 months and then get back to me as to which side of the asylum fence your on.

  3. BTW, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Piss Off!

    Oops, after reading further I see these lunatics are in the UK. Oh well they can still Piss Of & Trump & us still have plenty of lunatics in the USA to straighten out.

  5. “When there’s no more room in Hell the Dead will walk the Earth”

    Below Paul Watson has a bit of fun with his latest video exposing the sane to what “Trump Derangement Syndrome” looks/sounds like.

    BTW, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Piss Off! I’ll be sure the next time Infowars sends Prez Trump a mass of supporters Emails to take action against these type of Insane so called universities.

    Nothing will get their action like cutting off funding to their azzes. LOL

    http://www.prisonplanet.com/video-zombiefied-anti-trump-protester-goes-nuts.html

  6. Jonathan

    I have always admired your legal skills as a scholar of especially Con Law when you were Professor at GW Law and about your knowledge if legal and legislative matters generally.

    I was looking forward to occasionally commenting also on this new venture (I presume it’s new anyway) with WordPress, however, after dedicating time to composing comments, I see I have reached a level of frustration with WordPress, where perhaps I should leave.

    FYI — Though I have Windows10 desktop, at 72, I find myself using my Samsung S5 smartphone whenever possible. Of course I would not attempt to write a legal opinion, or a law review article or note on the S5, but it has plenty of external memory by way of a memory chip and runs the most current android 6 operating system, which VerizonWireless keeps current.

    That being said, apparently WordPress does not display properly in Android, because where an original comment appears fine, each response thereto narrows substantially on the screen and after several responses to an original comment you might as well be seeing a very long 2 or 3 word per line screen display. In at least 2 or 3 instances that was reduced to an almost vertical column of single words.

    WordPress seems to have problems keeping you signed in, which requires me to invent new profane word combinations followed by 1, 2 or 3 each time it doesn’t recognize a password. Today I responded to your post on the ACA replacement with analogies to casualty insurance and what does and doesn’t work in practice and was then greeted with a sign in demand from WordPress, which was accepted, but then ka-poof, the comment vanished.

    I wish you well in all your endeavors and perhaps our paths will cross again.

    Bruce Brucerealtor@gmail.com 202-253-7300 cell

  7. Kudos to Prof. Turley for the insight from his alma mater’s policy toward freedom of expression, which would also be advisable at poor Middlebury that, like this Welsh public university, seems to be conflicted:

    “Of course, the ideas of different members of the University community will often and quite naturally conflict. But it is not the proper role of the University to attempt to shield individuals from ideas and opinions they find unwelcome, disagreeable, or even deeply offensive. . . .

    “The freedom to debate and discuss the merits of competing ideas does not, of course, mean that individuals may say whatever they wish, wherever they wish. The University may restrict expression that violates the law, that falsely defames a specific individual, that constitutes a genuine threat or harassment, that unjustifiably invades substantial privacy or confidentiality interests, or that is otherwise directly incompatible with the functioning of the University. In addition, the University may reasonably regulate the time, place, and manner of expression to ensure that it does not disrupt the ordinary activities of the University.”

    https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1392999/foecommitteereport.pdf

    By Middlebury not pursuing criminal prosecution, it shows either what is alleged didn’t happen or that it has succumbed to pecuniary interests above principle. The latter seems to be at work at Cardiff Metropolitan.

    1. By Middlebury not pursuing criminal prosecution, it shows either what is alleged didn’t happen

      No, it shows the administration does not disapprove of what these cretins did. This isn’t that difficult.

  8. They missed some words. Hooker. Pork em. Lame brain. School snot. Professor. Dean.

  9. Where is this swamp?
    If your kid goes to school there then lift him out by helicopter so he/she does not step in the feces.

    We need to start a college feces list for this blog. Then we can rate the best and worst on the feces list. But, in saying worst we need to be clear. Maybe there cannot be a best on the list.

    1. I had a teacher who would go through my submitted papers and cross out ‘housewife’ and write in ‘homemaker’. That was 40+ years ago. You are (IIRC) in a cohort that would have missed out on that particular bit of silliness, but the smart money says your kids saw some of this.

      Think back to the administrators in the schools your children attended (or that you attended). There is a distinctly feminine type (which includes some capons) who play these games with people. They’re very plentiful in the educational apparat, which attracts and retains people who are at home with making a petty nuisance of themselves.

      2. Haha! I was an “unconventional” student in my college, graduating in 1980 at age 32. My school was in Aberdeen, SD and I didn’t experience any of that, fortunately. My three daughters never reported any of the PC and I must assume if they experienced it, it was quickly forgotten. Maybe too rural?

        1. David Brooks offered that one characteristic of people who live outside metropolitan centers of a certain size is that in their communities “the self is small”. Lena Dunham is not someone for whom the self is small.

          The admonition has been repurposed by more than one variety of regional partisan. I’ve seen it used for Nebraska, IIRC, so maybe it works for South Dakota:

          Our women hunt, fish, and drive trucks-because they want to. So, you’re a feminist. Isn’t that cute?

          1. I am NOT a feminist although I do believe women should be paid equally with men. I love men, especially my husband of 33 years. I like that he takes care of me. On the other hand, I started working at age 9, for my Dad and I had worked for 53 years between raising two girls alone( I divorced their so-called father) with going to college full time and earning a degree. I have been retired for five years and I’ve earned it. no I don’t hunt, fish or drive a truck and I don’t appreciate being compared to those women…………..

  12. Well then we should just fire back and redefine every organization/school/university that pushes this crap, starting with this one. For example:

    “Cardiff Metropolitan University” – Bastion of Fascism

  13. Some of the above make sense to discontinue use of. Some are patently ridiculous. “Tax Man” I have only heard in a derogatory sense with respect to the government, or government entities such as the IRS. Does that require generalization?

    Man-Made? Seriously? Are we also to stop the use of “the age of man”? “Man” is often synonymous with “human” in terms of our vocabulary. Not to say that certain words don’t benefit from it though. I would, however, still use “sales-woman”, or other gender specific job related terms if I’m trying to describe someone and don’t want to say “the sales person who is also a lady”.

    “Woman Doctor” – do people actually use this? In what context, I’d like to know why. It seems excessive. If it matters what the gender is, I’d tell people I have a female, or a male doctor. Or, “my doctor is a dude”. Doesn’t come up often.

    Hell, when I grew up, the trash man was the trash man. “Sanitation worker” I know all about, but they’re still the trash man. PC is PC, but no matter what you change it to, eventually that term will become synonymous with the job they do, and have negative connotation to it if it’s possible, and the cycle begins anew.

    Also, I love the suggestions for “housewife”. Based on your position in time or space, you get any of three titles. Makes for one heck of a signature block. “homemaker” seems to have the same connotation as “housewife”… Is all of this actually necessary? are there that many misogynists out there that this is necessary?

  14. At least that might have bothered to correct the fatal flaw that makes it a joke. Per SON is their a per daughter? I don’t THINK so. Point is most of the new terms are long, cumbersome and fail to meet the standards of political correctness. And there lies the problem. If it was society correcting itself the choices would be chariman, chairwoman or simply ‘chair.’ helmsman or helmer, seaman or ‘crew’. they must have agonized over hours of research and meetings to come up with some of this stuff when it’s rare there is not gender neutral solution already in existence. Problem is too lazy to do research.

    So they turn into language Nazis. Did they trannslate that into English to make sure it was Aryan pure and free of sexist phrases or words No they did not. The word “Nazi” is an abbreviation for the word “Nationalsozialist”. The full name of the political party was the “Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei” – the National Socialist German Worker’s Party.

    And that is exactly where the PC Gestapo will take us.

    Horse shoer person? Try farrier.

    1. I agree. It’s about time that men recognize that women should be included. What you call someone is your way of defining them. Women aren’t interested in being treated as 2nd class citizens. Change your terminology, change your view. Or least reduce your insults.

      1. Four lines of text, and hardly a true word in any one of them.

        You get insults, bettykath because you say blatantly silly things.

          1. HuffPo didn’t supply her with talking points to address what you said.

  17. Times change. The language changes with the times. If you are in a group at work and you refer to a woman as a businessman or the best man for the job, you’re not of this time. At one time using words such as ni**ers, chin^s, sp*cks, etc was common place. This appears to ‘go too far’, however, as referring to people using a default masculine identity retains the male as superior, paid more, etc, perhaps this is just another dose of the medicine people need. Too much, a little too encompassing, perhaps, but necessary, yes.

    1. “Times change. The language changes with the times.”

      I think it is a bit more complicated than that.

      If you look at PC on many words, it is clear that PC don’t want language to change. Terms that have been in non controversial use for decades or centuries are condemned for a supposed historical link.

      Sometimes that link has nothing to do with the actual meaning or use of the work – the link is purely cultural, association with a particular society.

      If there is anything that PC don’t want it is to acknowledge change in language.

      If PC can create an association in their own mind between a word and violation of a standard then it matters not at all the meaning attributed to the word, how the work is actually used, or the intentions of speakers today.

  18. OT but important,

    wikileaks just released information on CIA spying capabilities which are at least equal to and possibly greater than those of the NSA. The targets include nations around the world including citizens of the US.

    Go to their site for the information or see also Zero Hedge.

  19. The source of this is indubitably an officious nuisance with the British equivalent of an MEd degree. No clue why such people are ever hired. The proper response to such a person is ‘screw off’.

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