Feminine job titles

[guitarpete247]

Mother?

I know of a few men who could definitely be called Mothers .

 

[srw]

You can't be sure...

She self-identifies as a woman - wears female clothing and carries a female name. That's good enough for me.

 

[Mr Phoebus]

What's with the current trend of calling a group of men and women guys?

Women are definitely not guys... Except for Lola L-O-L-A Lola.

 

[Night Train]

....though some refuse to change. Landlord and landlady, for example, or binmen.

Isn't Arch a binman?

 

[Red Light]

Not exactly on topic but consistent with the opening post
At the start of JK Rowlings career the publishers insisted on JK instead of her real full name as some people would be put off if the author was female This train of thought is behind the neutral job titles

George Eliot beat her to it by over a century.

 

[Angelfishsolo]

[QUOTE 1479259"]
Midwife. I almost trained as one.
[/quote]
My brother in law is one. It is an interesting term and and it derives from the Anglo-Saxon "Mit Wif" or with woman. Also of interest is bride at that time meant cook

 

[Red Light]

She self-identifies as a woman - wears female clothing and carries a female name. That's good enough for me.

50% of the time my barber is a woman. The other 50% of the time its her husband.

 

[Melonfish]

I'm not claiming women can't be as competent as a bloke with a spanner, but in such a male dominated profession, I reckon many would think "Cant you send a bloke?"

Our female staff on the IT helpdesk used to get this a lot back in the day (talking late 90's) end user would get through to one of the girls and say "oh can i have IT support please", "Speaking" they'd say "Oh, i thought i'd got through to reception"
that pretty much summed it up, male dominated.

[QUOTE 1479259"]
Midwife. I almost trained as one.
[/quote]
same here actually

 

[Red Light]

In the same vein, anyone want to start a debate on the "singular they"

 

[Angelfishsolo]

50% of the time my barber is a woman. The other 50% of the time its her husband.

When I was in London 50% of the time my barber was a Man. The other 50% of the time it was his husband.

 

[Red Light]

When I was in London 50% of the time my barber was a Man. The other 50% of the time it was his husband.

You sure?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_in_the_United_Kingdom

 

[Angelfishsolo]

You sure?

http://en.wikipedia...._United_Kingdom

Well they wore wedding rings

 

[Chromatic]

personally I think neutrality is a good thing... as we live in a culture where we judge people's ability by gender to a certain extent.

Imagine breaking down on the motorway, calling the AA or RAC and being told "A mechanicess will be with you shortly" ... I'm not claiming women can't be as competent as a bloke with a spanner, but in such a male dominated profession, I reckon many would think "Cant you send a bloke?"

Spooky coincidence that you should say this. On Saturday we overtook an AA breakdown van on our journey and in that van was an AA lady, not an AA man.

I would not care if it was an AA lady or an AA man that turned up, as long as they could get me on my way again.

 

[Yellow Fang]

This fad for not using the feminine when describing some professions pisses me off for some reason. In our newspaper this Sunday there was a picture of an actress, can't remember who, and they called her an actor in the picture caption. WTF is wrong with calling her an actress ??

In America they tend to refer to actresses as actors mostly. I prefer the word actress as it brings up images of glamourous Hollywood ladies. Gender is an important factor to an actor, as it limits the roles you can play, not like most other professions, so doesn't that make it a fair distinction.

I was pondering this the other day. Headmistress/master have become headteacher. Flight attendant instead of steward and air hostess. In fact, most professions have adopted a gender-neutral title, seemingly without fuss, though some refuse to change. Landlord and landlady, for example, or binmen.

I refuse to use the term bartender. They will always be barmen or barmaids to me.

Not exactly on topic but consistent with the opening post
At the start of JK Rowlings career the publishers insisted on JK instead of her real full name as some people would be put off if the author was female This train of thought is behind the neutral job titles

PD James used her initials for the same reason. I used to think Richmal Compton was a man, till my mother told me differently. I was shocked.

Why? Did you want to know whether she was black or white? Gay or straight? Young or old? Successful or unsuccessful?

Someone's sex is utterly irrelevant to their ability to do the overwhelming majority of jobs, so there should in principle be absolutely no need to distinguish by job title. We should think ourselves lucky we have a language where this is possible, and don't need to resort to the German abomination "Mitarbeiter/in".

I'd already coloured her in as a white, middle aged, middle class person. I just wanted to know whether it was he or she. It was a story about a new member in a community rather than her profession.

In the same vein, anyone want to start a debate on the "singular they"

There's already been one.

 

[Noodley]

I'd already coloured her in as a white, middle aged, middle class person.

Had this information been made available or had you made it up?

Would it now change your mind if the author was non-white, poor as a church mouse and in their late teens?

And were they gay or staight in your head? Short or tall? Fat or thin? What about hair colour? Did they have children? Married or single? Mad or not mad?