Political Correctness Law
By Vladilyich1
@Vladilyich1 (1454)
Canada
March 19, 2009 3:08am CST
Euro chiefs ban 'Miss' and 'Mrs'
The European Parliament has banned the terms 'Miss' and 'Mrs' in case they offend female MEPs.
The politically correct rules also mean a ban on Continental titles, such as Madame and Mademoiselle, Frau and Fraulein and Senora and Senorita.
Guidance issued in a new 'Gender-Neutral Language' pamphlet instead orders politicians to address female members by their full name only.
Officials have also ordered that 'sportsmen' be called 'athletes', 'statesmen' be referred to as 'political leaders' and even that 'synthetic' or 'artificial' be used instead of 'man-made'.
The guidance lists banned terms for describing professions, including fireman, air hostess, headmaster, policeman, salesman, manageress, cinema usherette and male nurse.
However MEPs are still allowed to refer to 'midwives' as there is no accepted male version of the job description.
The booklet also admits that "no gender-neutral term has been successfully proposed" to replace 'waiter' and 'waitress', allowing parliamentarians to use these words in a restaurant or café.
It has been circulated by Harold Romer, the parliament's secretary general, to the 785 MEPs working in Brussels and Strasbourg.
Struan Stevenson, a Scottish Conservative MEP described the guidelines as "political correctness gone mad."
He said: "We have seen the EU institutions try to ban the bagpipes and dictate the shape of bananas, but now they see determined to tell us which words we are entitled to use in our own language."
Philip Bradbourn, another Conservative MEP, vowed to ignore the booklet, which he described as a "waste of taxpayers' money" and called on Mr Romer to reveal its cost.
He added: "I will have no part of it. I will continue to use my own language and expressions, which I have used all my life, and will not be instructed by this institution or anyone else in these matters."
Seven years ago, an attempt to amend noise laws came close to effectively outlawing bagpipes.
However, a number of bizarre EU rules remain in place, including a directive stating that every pair of rubber boots must be supplied with a user's manual in 12 languages.
2 people like this
3 responses
@AngryKittyMSV (4317)
• United States
26 Mar 09
Don't they have anything better to do than try to dictate every aspect of people's lives right down to the simplest aspects of speech? Also, the thing about the rubber boots, what the hell is that? What a bunch of useless morons they have in the EU. European nations were fools to sign up for this idiocy, they are at least as bad as the UN!
1 person likes this
@Vladilyich1 (1454)
• Canada
29 Mar 09
What frightens me is the plan to create a "North American Union", the unification of Mexico, the United States, and Canada. The agreements are almost completed and I expect we will see it within the next two years. Then North America will become a western version of the European Union. No sovereignity of any country, but all dictated by a joint govdernmental body.
1 person likes this
@danishcanadian (28955)
• Canada
20 Mar 09
I think this is just great!!! Language, and too many other things, have been mail-dominated for so long that people don't even notice them now. I know that now that we're married, when I use Ms. instead of Mrs. and call myself my last name instead of your last name, I still get looks from people, yet you're Mr. B, like you've always been. Now it's time they put the shoe on the other foot.
@ZephyrSun (7381)
• United States
19 Mar 09
That's so weird. I don't know how someone can get offended by a mistake like that. I have people that still call me Mrs. (ex husband's name) and I simply correct them since I have had that name in many year lol
