Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: Parole tabu' [nei tribunali inglesi]

Blacks 
The disabled 
Visible minorities 
Man and wife 
Businessmen 
Mental handicap 
Ethnics
La notizia completa in
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3705981.stm
 Wednesday, 12 May, 2004, 11:08 GMT 12:08 UK 
"Judges advised on language use"	
-- 
(T)EFL online communities
http://groups.msn.com/TEFL

 hundreds of thousands of Pounds a year to come up with crap like this.
[for the non-madrelingue: "Justice *gets* paid" no apostrophe; just to 
avoid any confusion.] But:
(PC - "Political Correctness" -- what a euphemism! It figures it would 
have gotten its start from the political realm)
I agree with jonny. The first thing I thought was "There goes the UK!" 
The over-PC attitude that's invaded the US has reached ridiculous 
proportions. Once in a conversation with some PC-zealots (not the 
Technological kind) I said something like, "I'm a man who likes to ... 
<whatever> " and someone "corrected" me by saying, "Joe -- er, I mean, 
Ketzl -- you're a *person* who likes to ..." I was momentarily taken 
aback, and I almost started to apologize but then I realized --- "Wait a 
minute! I *am* a man, and it would be good of you to notice."
-- 
I am Joey's Cat
Un-not my address, too, if you wanna reply.



Ok, you are a man [weren't you cat, anyway? ;) ]
But what about women in traditional expressions like "man and wife"?
Aren't they regarded just for their function, in that case?
What do the women in the NG think about that? 


 What do the women in the NG think about that? 
Ok, we've established that I'm a man-cat, but my opinion on the problem 
with the expression "man and wife" is that it's not truly parallel. It 
should be "man and woman" (which doesn't make sense, in the context of "I 
now pronounce you man and woman" because, well, weren't they "man and 
woman" before?) The true parallel would be "husband and wife", which 
substitutes for it these days.
If I *were* a woman-cat, I would feel that "man and wife" implies "here 
is a man and his possession, his wife." Not equals. (But see how I've 
been coerced by the PC Zombies?)


 
Man, that tops *my* story by a mile.
I had to keep checking that to be sure it wasn't coming from 
theonion.com
. What is this world coming to??
Where are the S&M advocates, claiming *their* rights, when you need 'em?


 minute! I *am* a man, and it would be good of you to notice."
Yes, it was only ever meant to be used for the non-gender specific
moments. I heard a news reporter the other day sart to 'person'  but
she corrected to say woman. because it was a specific occasion they
were talking about and only women fitted the bill. Lactating, that
was it. (but then they digressed to men lactating...)  ;-)
I saw a short [promo] on TV where someone thought "a pot calling the
kettle black" was a racist comment. Perhaps in these days of
electrical implements no-one remembers carbon burning and soot. :-)
-- 
              O      __
      ___   /\     / / O  
     /__ \   | \   /  |
    O  /  \ /   \./   |       Loki
        |________ |
 

 electrical implements no-one remembers carbon burning and soot. :-)
Yes, and I remember reading how "racist" the old "oater" cowboy shows 
were because the "bad guys" always wore black and the "good guys" always 
wore white. <sigh> 


 wore white. <sigh> 
I can't imagine anything staying too white in the dusty, non
washing-machine days. Although I'm not convinced these examples are
similar. The  pot was indistinguisahable from the 'blackened' kettle.
I wonder if the white/black cowboy hat thing was because movies were
in
black and white film and thus subtle colour hues were lost.


 in black and white film and thus subtle colour hues were lost.
The symbolism of the black sinister and the white pure has persisted from
ancient roots in European culture. There are many subtle connotations that
are implied in language and other symbol systems that are easy to dismiss in
a cursory surface discussion.



Yes, I know that. 
However I do think movies made it more obvious as they go in for
streotypes in a big way. And who's to say they didn't light upon the
hats as a simple marker for B&W film as well.
