Trinity College Dublin has dropped the word “Freshman” as sexist and offensive for women as well as people who do not identify with male or female genders. From now on, the 425-year-old institution will refer to students as “Fresh.” While that makes students sound that produce, it is meant to avoid term deemed by the “Equality Committee” to be a “concrete expression of the university’s commitment to gender equality.”
The new term will apply to both first and second year students who were historically called junior and senior freshman.
The school declared that “as we approach 100 years of women’s suffrage in Ireland in 2018, it is timely to reflect on changes in our student body since ‘Freshman’ first came into use, and to ensure those changes are reflected in the name we give them.” Likewise, Trinity College Student Union President Kevin Keane said that “Trinity College can be an intimidating place for new students so anything that can be done to reduce that is important and welcome.”
There is of course the opposing view that freshman is viewed as gender neutral in modern usage and that, if students are intimidated by such common terms, the problem is really not the use of the classic noun.
Fresh? What are these people……tomatoes or something?
https://youtu.be/1umEXpGHc0E
“…“Freshman” as sexist and offensive for women…”
_________________________________________
If “freshman” is sexist and offensive to women,
is “Affirmative Action Privilege” sexist, racist and offensive to the U.S. Constitution?
How about calling them a “plebe.”
I wonder if MAN will be removed from WO-MAN.
“Trinity College can be an intimidating place for new students so anything that can be done to reduce that is important and welcome.”
Intimidating? These kids are proving to be nothing but a pile of whiny mush. Of all the social changes that have gone on over the last 425 years, and they bend to this? Send these kids to boot camp and in short order, they will no longer be confused about gender and they’ll have very few things to be intimidated by.
Perhaps students could progress from “fresh” to “wilted” to “moldy” to “compost.”
🙂
Oh my God…….the bug is spreading.! It’s even crossing oceans.!
I am patting myself on the back…for having stopped my grandson applying there this year.
I hope, I don’t regret it…with all the “goings on “ on College campuses here…
If Dublin starts that carry on, it will spread like wild fire….
Imagine, describing a College Entrant as “Fresh”….They have lost their marbles.!!
“They have lost their marbles.!!”
~+~
I’d say they lost their yarbles. The eunuch jelly administrators haven’t the courage to stand up to this nonsense. Sad day for Ireland.
They ought to drop the name Dublin. It means itShayhead in Irish. Something else in pig latin.
Man comes from the German “Mann”, pronounced “mahn”, and meaning one, a person. It is not particularly masculine. Around the time of the Declaration of Independence someone wrote about “all men, male and female”.
Mann is pronounced mann, meaning man, and it is masculine.
On this point, DBB, we can generally agree, though I think it’s debatable whether the English word “man” comes from the German word “mann.” But on the important point, the word “man” was actually gender neutral in conception, equivalent to a “person.” The link of “man” to “male” is actually of much more recent origin. And, in any event, this entire gender-neutral insanity that so many obsess over, is absurd, and English scholars should be putting the gender-neutral “community” in its place, but they are too frightened to speak out about the truth for fear of losing their jobs. The word “woman” obviously contains the word “man,” as does the word “humanity.” Are the gender-neutral nuts going to try to get those words banned too? I wouldn’t put it past them. Once you let the insane determine what happens, there is no end to the insanity.
What a scathing essay dear old Dean Swift would have written on this subject!
Let’s see how this actually plays out. I think the Law of Unintended Consequences is going to kick in. 😉
It’s Ireland. If the school wants to look back, 100 years or so, and pay homage to Irish history, it should name all first year students, SPUDS, as a tip of the hat to the great potato famine. Maybe, FRESH POTATOES?
Seniors: Potatoes
Juniors: Spuds
Freshmen: Tater Tots
What did you study in the University?
Gender Assimilation and it’s Descriptive Technology.
Really and they gave me a Doctorate for recommending all pronouns be reduced to It.
Can you get a job with that degreee?
Either that or we’ll riot and sue!
At one time “fresh” was a derogatory. Now it’s sexual harassment. I was a Freshman and never minded it.
Our school shortened it to Frosth or Hey Beanie. Being older than the senior I just acted like an adult and ignored them. In that particular school I was staying on campus renting an unused bed in the Veterans dorm for a hundred a month.,. We didn’t allow the others entrance unless they brough a six pack a fresh deck of cards and one hundred buy in. It was a profitable term.