Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
PC World
An acquaintance of mine (female) has referred to a fireman as a "fire-person".
Presumably the PC equivalent of firemen, is fire-people. Call me old fashioned, but that sounds like a 1960s rock group.
This particular piece of social re-engineering hasn't really caught on though, has it?
Tags for Forum Posts: Fireperson, firepeople, villagepeople
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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Officer suggests senior, managerial or investigative. Are trainees and raw recruits also fire officers?
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Permalink Reply by Richard McKeever on
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It feels like it is still the 1960's when straightforward plain English and gender-neutral language is questioned as "PC".
People who fight fires are firefighters - have been for years - and that is the accepted usage on the London Fire Brigade Recruitment website.
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Permalink Reply by Alison P on
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"Officer suggests senior, managerial or investigative. Are trainees and raw recruits also fire officers?"
Er .. and 'man' suggests ..
Seriously though, I was caught by this the other day talking to my 5 year old about 'policemen' and why women can't join the police (his question). It's easy to mock these things but language matters.
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Permalink Reply by MrsWhams on
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Yes, language matters, and it also evolves
It's logical to come up with a term that is gender-neutral to reflect both men and women doing the job - or simply using an existing one, as in 'firefighters'.
I hate the term 'PC' used like this - it's always meant pejoratively yet actually it is mostly an honest attempt to promote inclusiveness and fairness.
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Permalink Reply by Chris brock on
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We need a more radical change. "Man" actually means "person" (non gender-specific, as in "hu-man"). So for the male half of the species, I recommend substitution of the word "man" with a suitable alternative. "Bloke", perhaps?
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I don't have a problem with "firefighter", which is gender neutral, even if 99% of the firepeople are in fact, blokes.
Fireperson and Firepeople sound forced. As if a PC-person is trying too hard.
I'd love to hear some comment from a real fireperson.
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It's absolutely true that language matters and evolves.
But evolving doesn't mean only in evolve forever in one direction. Some terms in language wax and wanes; for example a lot of so-called Americanism are largely very olde English terms that we no longer use or even recognise. They may well come back.
So many things move in cycles, like the boom and bust of economic activity.
So the current trend towards ("promote") PC terminology is another fashion that may last for a while, or it may eventually wane, when more practical, descriptive, usage returns.
"Fire Brigade" may yet become the "Sustainable Mobile Fire Place Committee" but I think that "fire engine" is fairly well ingrained and we're unlikely to call it by the American, Fire Truck.
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Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on
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At PC World Enfield I notice they have all the inclusive words you could wish for [Training Advisors - Operators -TechGuys, which I suppose has now been thoroughly inclusivised/sex neutralised/Americanis/zed].
Apparently, the only thing missing is WOMEN. So much for our PC world.
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Permalink Reply by Andrew T on
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Or Fire People could be a French Jazz-Ska band (Spotify link The Fire people – Sale Fille)
Also according to Wikipedia a fictional race in a comic
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http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate-uk/2010/03/06/chipping-away-a...
-nice article from a serving fire fighter with 20 years experience who is 'chipping away at old stereotypes'
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Osbawn: "Lady" is un-PC. My sister ticked me off some years ago for my telling her daughter that something was unladylike. Mind you, that lot have been living in Sydney for some years anyway, so you can't expect much.
If we start removing titles, lets begin with "Lord" Archer, followed swiftly by ceasing the court reporting of (other) criminals, as "Mr".
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