'Mother' and 'Father' advised against.

[AdaFuckingShelby]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-56372118

What's next? Primary care giver day?

@CuriousaboutSamphire Totally agree, it is down to context. If I’m speaking to a child one to one and know their home circumstances, I do refer to mum, dad etc. If speaking to a class or year group en mass I will say ‘care giver’.

Defo not advocating banning ‘mother’ or ‘father’. I am one (well, mummy), my children have a daddy. My nephews have 2 mummies. I have a mum, and so does DH.

@ErrolTheDragon Absolutely. I think a neutral term for a wide audience is acceptable, but that doesn’t negate ‘mother’ or ‘father’. I am a woman and being a mother is part of who I am.

@Quadzilla

Stonewall tell them to remove gendered terms including mother and father. A FOI to my local council showed feedback from Stonewall explicitly advising these word changes in policy so you can be rewarded by climbing their Workplace Index.

I misread that as ‘wokeplace index’. I wasn’t far off though.

@Quadzilla

Stonewall tell them to remove gendered terms including mother and father. A FOI to my local council showed feedback from Stonewall explicitly advising these word changes in policy so you can be rewarded by climbing their Workplace Index.

I misread that as ‘wokeplace index’. I wasn’t far off though.

On the other side, how much have women fight to change policeman to police officer. Fireman to firefighter (I’m sure there was some issues with fireman Sam not long ago).
Basically women being aware the words matter. And that words that automatically include MAN as the basic definition of what a human being is is a major issue.
There has been fight about nit automatically getting married, recognising the different styles of parenting (Incl same sex couples and children having two mums/dads).
There has been fights to have the role of father recognised for them to finally really be engaged in their own children upbringing.

All of that would lead to the changes highlighted here. (Yes bar the first two).

It’s unfortunate that what Stonewall is asking for is actually ALSO what feminists have been demanding for years.
The fact he is asking for the same thing shouldn't lead us to stop and refuse that very thing. It would be massive step back for women imo.

Where the fight should be is for mother/women to be used when it IS necessary. Eg b’fing, women’s only places etc etc
And yes those dreaded pronouns too.

My granny used to go around with gay abandon. You can change worlds all you like but others will mutate to take up the same meaning, unless that is you can create a new language. ‘EngSoc’ perhaps to replace English society.
‘The destruction of words is a beautiful thing’ to quote an author who’s work has never seemed so relevant - any takers for DoubleThink

As I said to DS only recently - you can mangle the English language and change words all you like, but the meaning remains the same...