Following a complaint from a non-binary passenger
Ah there it is, the whole point – force other people to pay attention to precious One, and force them to do extra things and make extra efforts, all for precious One.
London North Eastern Railway (LNER) has said its conductors will be warned to not use the greeting “ladies and gentlemen” following a complaint from a non-binary passenger.
LNER said train managers should not use the phrase to avoid offending passengers who might identify as neither male nor female.
Passengers might identify as a potato, too, but that doesn’t mean they are one. Nobody is neither male nor female. They can ask their friends to call them non-binary if they like, but the world at large has better things to do.
It comes after a complaint from a passenger on social media, the Telegraph reports.
In a Twitter post directed to LNER, the passenger wrote: “Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls…” As a non-binary person this announcement doesn’t actually apply to me, so I won’t listen.”
I’ve seen some tweets about this over the past couple of days and in fact the complainer isn’t a passenger but an employee. The complaint wasn’t spontaneous but a plan.
LNER replied to the complainant, agreeing that train managers “should not be using language like this”.
Because they should be keeping the needy narcissists in mind at all times yeah?
LNER is the latest company to ditch the phrase “ladies and gentlemen” in favour of more inclusive language.
More “inclusive” because a phrase that includes all adults isn’t “inclusive” enough. “Ladies, gentlemen, and fantasists”?
The phrase was discarded from announcements on the Tube in 2017, in a bid to make them gender-neutral.
Bosses at Transport for London told staff to use terms such as “good morning everyone” to ensure all passengers feel welcome.
LGBTQ+ campaigners have fought for gender-neutral language, explaining that phrases such as “ladies and gentlemen” exclude people who do not identify as male or female.
But “not identifying as male or female” is meaningless. Humans just are one or the other, including the small minority that’s intersex. People can decide they don’t identify as mammals, too, but that doesn’t make them reptiles. Thoughts in the head are just thoughts in the head, and most of them are of no interest to anyone except the owner of the head.
“‘Mornin’, ya miserable shower! Bind up yer binaries toot sweet or you can just cis off!”
Ah, inclusions…inclusiveness…
They keep saying this! But “ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls” does not exclude the L, the G, or the B, only the T and the ridiculous NB.
This is a gem!
@iknklast #2
So transwomen don’t identify as ladies?
Yes, and the key campaigner responsible for making that happen?
Aimee Challenor.
Oops.
I recall reading a news item about a company that wanted employees to refer to each other as “they”. There were complaints from employees who identified as trans, because the policy failed to validate their transition.
I don’t think I’ve heard of trans* people advocating gender neutral language except for things like reproductive issues (“people who menstruate”, and so on).
*Except perhaps for “trans non-binary people”, which still makes no sense to me.
I’m not English nobility, yet I let people who are just trying to be polite and do their jobs call me “lady” every time.
@7 Exactly. If the group is large enough, there are bound to be people who don’t fit the description, and not because of gender. The charitable thing to do is make the assumption, but this doesn’t mean people with gender issues are being forced into categories, but of course narcissism mandates that everything, no matter how impersonal, applies to them. If I get on a train in a foreign (to me) country, and they address the passengers in a language that I don’t understand, I try not to assume I have been insulted and take personal offense. :P
I’ll admit that I don’t like being called “lady”…mostly because of that naughty second-wave feminism, but also because of the class issue and all that went with it (including racism). But would “good morning ladies and gentlemen” annoy me as the intro to a train announcement? I don’t think so – I think as a Yank I would find it faintly charming. Anyway saying “Good morning women and men” sounds most peculiar. What’s the vocative on planes? Passengers? At any rate, whatever it is, it’s necessarily generic, and making a big fuss about personalizing it for the People of Gender is just all.too.typical.
There is a greeting supposedly used in circuses: “Ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages!” I was going to suggest the second phrase be changed to “people of all genders”, but perhaps it works perfectly as it is.
Oh yes, so there is. It should become universal! Children of all ages is an excellent escape clause.
‘Ladies and gentlemen’ is quaint and wordy. ‘Passengers’ would be neater and more accurate. Trans-bullying drifts into the neighborhood of reducing needless gender divisions in English. But that’s not enough for them. I was at a zoom meeting last week where a Troon took up time whinging about ‘microaggression’ etc. But used the ‘chat’ space to correct and admonish they way other people referred to themselves. The demand for complete control of the whole world was unaccompanied by any self-awareness.
“Good morning!”
Basically, the “everyone” or “ladies and gentlemen” bit isn’t necessary on a general announcement. I can’t say I’ve ever hear it used on a plane or on any public transportation outside of tour bus drivers that are by nature a bit overly chatty.
(This is US of course. Haven’t been to London since 1990…)
So according to the oh-so-oppressed NB’s, “Friends, Romans, countrymen” or “My fellow Americans” etc. should also qualify as offensive. I mean how dare they! :P
(but to be fair, I have heard “My fellow Americans” spoken by those who I feel no fellowship toward either, and I managed not to make a stink about it) ;)
I love the Japanese language for this issue. They just say mina-san, meaning “everyone” when talking to a crowd of people, mixed sex or not.
“mina-san, konnichiwa”
They also don’t have gendered pronouns, although there are variations of the honorific “san” that can be applied to younger girls (chan) or boys (kun).
Good morning ladies and gentlemen… and others. (Stolen from Anna Russell.)
Some people are chimeras: effectively two genetically different people in one.
So on this basis alone, the LNER would be well advised to instruct all staff to address passengers thus: “Ladies, gentlemen, chimeras and others ….”
Should cover all the bases.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/3-human-chimeras-that-already-exist/#:~:text=A%20chimera%20is%20essentially%20a,fetus%20can%20absorb%20its%20twin.