Museum forced to stop calling ships "she"

[FairfaxAikman]

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

I know this might sound odd but referring to a ship as ‘it’ sounds sort of... dehumanising!

It’s bad enough they are transing the dead, now they are doing it to inanimate objects.

YES. THIS.

Fucksake. As if there aren’t enough actual real things to protest about happening in the world..

I can’t believe this charity is not telling these ignorant, narcissistic weirdos to go fuck themselves and then calling the police for the vandalising criminal damage that they have done to their expensive signage (apparently twice now).

Instead the charity are on Twitter saying let’s chat and we want to be inclusive.

Can we just send them some cash to replace the signs? Then they can just carry on as normal and tell the vandal to go fuck themselves.

It’s seems very counterproductive to reward bad behaviour by doing what the vandal wants - this museum needs some parenting advice!

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

This. With nobs on.

Will they now lobby for gender neutral storms too?

Tbh that mightn't be a bad thing, there's a (contested) theory that people react differently to storm warnings based on whether they're given male or female names, leading to "female" storms killing more people because people take them less seriously. Neutral names might actually save lives.

www.snopes.com/fact-check/female-named-hurricanes-death/

People need to stop rewarding these toddler tantrums though. Vandalism should be prosecuted, not grovelled to!

But name-gender is cultural. In France, Laurence is a girl. So is Morgan. But Gael and Lillian are boys. In Italy, Nicola and Andrea, boys. USA, Robyn, Girl, Jessie, Boy. Etc.

AlwaysComingHome

Okay, now I have to do a Jodi Taylor quote:

“No, he’s made a very good point,’ said Bashford provocatively. ‘Women are just vessels, you know.’ ‘That’s very true,’ said Sykes, smiling angelically at him. ‘I myself am a seventeen-thousand-ton Dreadnought class battleship with enough firepower to destroy a medium-sized city.”

AlwaysComingHome

Long and thin and full of seamen.

(I’ll get me coat.)

^This! So bad so obvious but so good! Lmao! I needed that.

It’s seems very counterproductive to reward bad behaviour by doing what the vandal wants - this museum needs some parenting advice!

Yes!

My dad was in the Navy and told me that ships (like aircraft) are named after ladies and called she because they represent beautiful qualities... grace, power, and reliability. And when you spend that much time working/living on a vessel you love her, as she always has your life at her mercy. Probably his take but I like it.

TM's take on this ...

Love Titania!

It's hit the BBC too...

www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-scotland-48037933

It’s time organisation s stood up to those fucking bullies.

Rember birds eye and their way of dealing with the bullies.

Potatoes

I'm surprised at the reaction.
I would have thought people here would be happy to remove female pronouns from inanimate objects.

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...?'

I don't understand this, unless they were speaking English? French for firefighter is "pompier". If plural it would be "les pompiers" for both male, female or mixed firefighters.

He was speaking English - in fact I heard 2 say it and be gently corrected. To be honest My niece is a fire fighter and doesn’t care of people call her a fireman (usually small kids).

Ah, ok, the French thing was a red herring
But again, if it's not their native language I would cut them a little slack over the error.

Their English was a million times better than my French. I am always impressed when people are interviewed in a foreign language.

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!

Because like mothers, ships are safe vessels which carry their occupants; and gong back to the ship is like returning home.

Because like mothers, ships are safe vessels which carry their occupants; and gong back to the ship is like returning home.

Or if you ask someone like my ex-Navy grandfather, it's cos they cost you a lot of money, need careful handling and have regular paint jobs.

Now on Angry People in Local Newspapers - with a lot of comments
m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2473434072701581&id=922716137773390&tn=%2As%2As-R

Looks as if this was a reaction to just two minor acts of vandalism. This is a massive overreaction, can you imagine attending the meeting where this was decided? Unbelievable.

I've communicated before with people at this museum. They were absolutely lovely, more than helpful and I feel pretty sad that some idiot with an axe to grind has spoiled their signs. Whatever the reason behind ships being called 'she'.

How much do they need to replace the damage?

This is a massive overreaction, can you imagine attending the meeting where this was decided?

Sadly I don't think it is. This is a very small, poorly visited museum (but excellent!) that can barely afford to look after the exhibits and buildings that they have. They genuinely cannot afford to keep replacing museum quality signs which are, I imagine, quite expensive.