aibu to think no woman would be offended by the phrase "gentlemans agreement"

[daftpunk]

some other phrases the PC brigade want banned;

black day

right hand man

oh, and whiter than white

lololo

pityssake;

if you have worked in teaching you should know more than anyone i'm not talking bollocks...

i really do deny all this is happening
I think a lot of it is manners tbh and consideration

"Yes, I saw a documentary or something where all of these "It's PC gone mad, I tells yer" type stories are ALL a load of nonsense and no-one ever has actually banned the word black and stuff."

See the Times article that I just linked:

"Advice issued by the South West Regional Development Agency states: ?Terms such as ?black sheep of the family?, ?black looks? and ?black mark? have no direct link to skin colour but potentially serve to reinforce a negative view of all things black. Equally, certain terms imply a negative image of ?black? by reinforcing the positive aspects of white."

Personally I don't think it's the end of civilisation as we know it and actually I quite like the idea of trying to change language where it causes offence or perpetuates unhelpful stereotypes, but why do people go into denial about it happening?

Agree with PitysSake - it's mostly common sense and politeness. Of course, it sometimes is about changing language, but mainly for the better (ie telling older relatives that it's not polite to refer to my neighbours as 'the coloured people' and so on).

But then my job involves giving guidance on the use of language so I would say that.

" the Newcastle University has singled out the phrase ?master bedroom? as being problematic. "

But really I would rather universities prioritised addressing actual discrimination against women within their organisations rather than pissing around trying to change language.
So often it's all about making the organisation look good without actually costing them anything or forcing the people in power to give up any of it.

master bedroom is just crap htough and poncey

it's all crap and poncey, why shouldn't someone say right hand man ...would women and left handed men give a toss.....nope.

Every now and then some looney tunes resurrects this and it usually comes to nothing thank god.

But in the '80s it was very real and scary. My aunt worked for Islington council at the time and was not allowed to ask for a black coffee in the canteen - she was also not allowed to talk about 'manholes' even though she worked on streetcare - she had to call them 'access chambers' which is all very well but nobody knew what she was talking about.

I am rather heartened that people actually think about language and its uses, applications and embedded cultural meanings in relation to our lives and how we treat each other.

How we communicate with each other is something worthy of monitoring and amending if necessary.

And how old is that Taxpayers Alliance fool? was he even alive in the eighties? If so, he might remember just how evilly racist, sexist, and homophobic much of the population were.

must try harder, dp. this is a load of bollicks. the baa baa black sheep thing, in particular, is a myth.

but yes, we should be considerate about the language we use, i think.

The DM runs this story every few years and most of it is bollocks. The 'baa-baa black sheep' thing in particular is totally a myth.

Why is it so awful to think about what we say before we open our mouths, DP?

On the other hand 'master bedroom' is quite sexy, isn't it?

aitch;

you are the 3rd person to assume i started this for some kind of fight..?..?

x-post, aitch!

I think i agree with the statement from the south west regional development agency abotu the possible connections with the word black as being a negative thing and white being a positive thing.
but the words aren't to do with skin colour.
I think it would be more sensible to stop referring to black people and white people: mainly because we're not black or white. white people are more of a beigey-pinky colour and black people are various shades of brown. People of Asian origin don't get called black or brown, and yet they normally have farker skin tones.
When people aren't given such black and white terms of description, then the words will no longer have racist connotations in anyone's mind.

and to stop saying Chairman or Gentleman's Agreement is stupid: in my opinion it stops people (oooh, normally men...) focussing on the real issues of women's rights and domestic violence and abuse etc. changing the name of the chairman won't stop or even expose a woman being beaten up by her husband.

At the college my sister went to they were not allowed to ask for a black or white coffee. It was coffee with milk, or coffee without milk. Canteen staff were instructed not to serve anyone who didn't ask 'properly' - and they carried out these instructions.

yanbu
(wow DP we aggree)
sadly whilst they are saying crap like this , they arn't concentrating on real discimination.
shall we all sing baa baa rainbow sheep

darker not farker obviously

lol, imagine that, dp.

although i think you started it to be controversialist and to run with your habitual pc gone mad line. i'd ban the use of pc brigade myself...

i was reading the catholic times yesterday,
FIFA are objecting to christian footballers making then sign of the cross.....why.?

incase it offends who.?

well that's an interesting one, paolosgirl. i wonder if it was just a really easy way to make college students think about the effect that language has on people? quite a useful exercise, i'd have thought, would have provoked discussion.

well where i come from the sign of the cross has habitually been used to actively taunt non-catholic opposition supporters, so the Catholic Observer might just be approaching that story from the wrong angle there...

rofl at Catholic Times...

No one can accuse of not having a broad range of reading material!

can we get rid of "looney left" while we are at it?

The origins of the shhep myth

Big hoo-ha over something that didn't actually happen.

osorry i Hve no sympathy for the condom bannign cathocli church