The suitably angry-looking West Midlands Conservative MEP, Philip Bradbourn, is getting his unisex knickers in a twist over the EU’s new guidelines on language. He’d like to continue defining women on whether they’d bagged a man or not, with impunity. But South West Lib Dem MEP Graham Watson says that the guidelines are an attempt to treat men and women equally.
Graham Watson said: “In fact, all that has happened is that a short paper has been produced to guide the parliament’s officials and translators who have to write documents for people from 27 different countries.
“It says that women and men should be treated equally. It should not be assumed that every airplane pilot is a man. It suggests that the word ‘manager’ not ‘manageress’ should be used when describing women with the job, ‘nurse’ not ‘male nurse’ when describing men.”
And the guidelines stipulate ‘a woman’s own wishes as to how she would like to be addressed should be respected’.
• Which non-sexist expression can be used to describe anyone who says ‘it’s political correctness gone mad’?
posted by Cptn
(image: West Midlands Conservative MEP, Philip Bradbourn)
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