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Original poster

Museum forced to stop calling ships "she"

61 replies

FairfaxAikman · 23/04/2019 16:35

Vandals have been scratching out female pronouns

www.scotsman.com/news/people/scottish-maritime-museum-forced-by-vandals-to-stop-calling-ships-she-1-4913370?fbclid=IwAR3b44WFsOp-UJ-tmOmyS73EYy8MaO5j4Skb2g5xW1Qfm8CwxvL1F-UBGDE

OP posts:
EBearhug · 23/04/2019 16:54

I thought Lloyds of London stopped referring to them as "she" a few years ago.

LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD · 23/04/2019 16:53

I heard many a French commentator talking about the 'firemen' at Notre Dame being hastily corrected by the interviewer repeating 'So you say that there were 500 fireFIGHTERS at the blaze then...?'

Backwoodsgirl · 23/04/2019 16:52

Why have they been identified as female?

It’s a geographical thing.

North America, Australia, Western Europe = She

Eastern Europe Middle East and Russia =He

Rest of the world =it

JaneEyreAgain · 23/04/2019 16:49

Quietly wondering up myself how this mentality would manifest in a language with masculine and feminine pronouns. .. French and German for example.

The French have only recently adopted feminine nouns for male professions..

La voiture is not a sexualisation of the car.

LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD · 23/04/2019 16:49

Will they now lobby for gender neutral storms too?

Original poster
FairfaxAikman · 23/04/2019 16:48

Googling suggests it’s because of woman = mother = protector,

They (and figureheads) were once the only women allowed at sea.

OP posts:
GarthFunkel · 23/04/2019 16:45

No one go to Bristol then. All sorts of things are female - cars, houses, radios, shops.

ScipioAfricanus · 23/04/2019 16:44

Googling suggests it’s because of woman = mother = protector, which is a reassuring way to think about your ship. Still reductive!

ScipioAfricanus · 23/04/2019 16:42

It’s like cars. It’s sexualising something which is important to men.

I’ve never particularly liked them being called ‘she’ because it felt like it had those connotations, but this is ridiculous - the museum basically saying we are going to change what we do because of vandals.

Chancewouldbeafinethlng · 23/04/2019 16:39

Why have they been identified as female?
I always got the impression it was because historically it was a bunch of men controlling ‘her’. Happy to be educated though!

ButterflyBitch · 23/04/2019 16:39

FFS.

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