Not impartial language

More on the “Shall we erase women? No let’s not” controversy.

And along with that, it occurs to me, there’s the having to say out loud (to an audience of millions) such a stupid clumsy false thing would be intensely grating. The phrase “pregnant people” is childish in addition to everything else. It’s baby talk. It’s as if some BBC rebel had sneaked “poopoo pants” into a script. Plus there’s the “confusing the listeners” aspect. Newsreaders aren’t supposed to confuse the listeners, and the writers of the scripts that newsreaders read are not supposed to confuse the listeners, and in this case the writers trapped the reader into saying something stupid and inaccurate.

In other words it wasn’t necessarily political, or exclusively political – it may also (or entirely) have been about not befuddling the listeners.

Language matters.

Comments

4 responses to “Not impartial language”

  1. twiliter Avatar

    It is deliberate virtue signalling. But who? Are the journalists being told to use this language by editors, or are they doing it on their own? Is there that much pressure to use ideological language, will they get fired or go unpublished if they don’t submit? I think it’s chickenshit at best, whether the pressure comes from a small but loud group of TRA’s, or if they are just so weak minded they go with whatever trendy lingo the twans communinny insists on. Spineless inarticulate snowflakes or what? Stupidness?

  2. Sumi Avatar

    Twiliter, I suspect BBC staff are told to use this language by editors and Stonewall/IDE consultants, and are self-censoring to avoid the sort of “pour encourager les autres” disciplinary inquiry that Ms Croxall faced.

    The BBC Style Guide entry for Gender/Sex is enlightening, although I’m surprised that “same-sex marriage” is still encouraged. LGBT activist groups have moved on to calling them “same-gender marriages.” https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsstyleguide/g

  3. Ophelia Benson Avatar

    I wonder this all the time. I think much of it is just basic conformity = knowing it’s the done thing among the Right Kind of People, so one has to do it to be among those people. It sort of spirals. Everybody thinks it’s the done thing so it becomes entrenched as the done thing.

    But working against that is how absurd it is. Why the absurdity is not more of an obstacle is a mystery to me. I do not get it.

  4. twiliter Avatar

    Groupthink and herd mentality are powerful motivators (I guess?). Also tribalism, which our beloved Arty has articulated so well. Can’t these individuals think for themselves? My guess is no.

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