🐱 California city bans gender-specific words from city code

"Manholes" to "Maintenance Holes": California city bans gender-specific words from city code

Berkeley City Council has unanimously voted to eliminate gender-specific words from its municipal code.

www.fox29.com

Berkeley City Council has unanimously voted to eliminate gender-specific words from its municipal code.
The vote was on Tuesday and the idea was introduced by 23-year-old city council member Rigel Robinson.



"Language has power. The words we use are important," Robinson said. "It's not only timely, but necessary to make sure that our laws really speak for everyone."
Some of the changes include the word, "manhole" that will now be "maintenance hole."
A bondsman will become a "bondsperson." And fireman officially becomes firefighter.
The list goes on with other examples, including craftsmen, which becomes artisans.
Heirs is changed to beneficiaries. Manpower will now be "human effort" and pregnant woman is now pregnant employee.%INLINE%
We found a mix of reactions to these changes.
Supporters say the language tweaks make Berkeley more inclusive.
"If it makes the city happy I guess they can go ahead. They can change it to maintenance hole. I'm sure it wouldn't hurt anybody," said Erin Davis of Berkley.
"It sounds like they want to include everybody, including trans, the LGBTQ community that gets left out.
But not everyone was on the same page.
"No. Uh...I think it would remain the same. Why change it?" said Athena Addison of Berkeley.
"They come up with these cockamamie things all the time," said one unidentified older resident.
And at one Berkeley fraternity, Andrew Haits, a UC student had this reaction: "Come on. Enough is enough," he snickered. "I think they've gone too far. The reason why they're gender separated is because they are gender separated. Fraternities are male and sororities are female."
He's referring to fraternities and sororities, which will now be referred to as "collegiate Greek system residencies."
Berkeley's municipal code uses mostly male pronouns, such as "he", but the new code will switch from he and she to "they" when referring to individuals.
All forms generated by the city of Berkeley will soon have a space for people filling it out to designate which pronoun they prefer.
City officials said the cost of the changes is $600.

 

[Hide the Pain Sagman]

So what will they call "pedophile acceptance"?

 

[Amber the Hedgehog]

It's so fucking great to speak a language that never used gendered pronouns. Sadly shit like "fireman" does exist here as well (sad in the sense that idiots get ammo to bitch about it), and a bunch of tumblrinas proclaim that they are offended on behalf of nonexistent firewomen.

Spoiler: Not really anything important, just sperging stats

Now I know people start taking sentences like that weirdly personally, so I'll just do a quick rundown on cold, hard statistics: According to official channels in this country, there are a total of ten women who have finished the emergency services education, and the first of those got her degree in 1995. Between 2013 and 2017 a total of 33 women applied, and only 4 were accepted. Of the 33 women who applied, 19 passed the physical exam. It just wasn't enough to become a fireman.

24 years, ten female firemen. This shit is enough of a reason for some people to change a word that nobody, least of which the proud women working this dangerous profession, has a problem with.

I wonder if the female firefighters in the US (which are apparently around 7% according to some CNN article) have ever given their opinion on how much of a shit they give about what term is used? Though I can't imagine a single person giving a shit about "manhole" being changed since there's no fucking way anyone but a man is voluntarily doing sewage work.

To be fair a firefighter sounds a lot more badass than a fireman.

 

[keyboredsm4shthe2nd]

You guys gendered entities want the whole list? Oh c'mon, you know you want the whole list:
Ver archivo adjunto 847744

jesus it's like an alien's guide on how to sound human.

 

[Anonymous For This]

Ver archivo adjunto 847695

HE TRIED TO WARN US AND WE DIDN'T LISTEN

Language does have power, which is exactly why they are trying to newspeak everything. I'm sure there were PLENTY of women out there that felt SO ostracized when they heard the word fireman.

Spoiler: Powerlevel

Former firefighter.

One of the reasons I quit was that years ago my department and the county changed the physical fitness requirements for women to be hired on. Within months we had three brand new hires that were completely fucking useless.

We had a house that was set to be demoed in our jurisdiction and the homeowner's turned it over to us to use it as a smoke/burn house for a week. One evening we brought in fog machines and fogged the whole house up at night to simulate rescues for the new hires.

I went out on an attack line with one of the women and the scenario was that we would push into the basement and I would collapse at the bottom of the stairs without giving the other two on the line a heads up. I was middle man on the line, we get to the bottom of the steps, and I slump onto my stomach like a sack of potatoes. This broad continues to push forward, even though she couldn't feel my hand on her boot anymore and the third guy was calling man down.

She finally gets routed back by the officers watching us through a thermal camera. She makes multiple attempts to get me back up the stairs, but fails. This went on until the exercise was called off, because she was getting far too hot and the other guy was exhausted from doing 90% of the work.

Quit some time later. Fuck getting caught in a flashover because some dumbass physically can't do the job.

 

[CheezzyMach]

jesus it's like an alien's guide on how to sound human.

This shit is what happens when you spend all your time in internet hugboxes.

I hope to god this shit follows the path of every other idiotic social trend from previous decades and dies in the 2020s.

 

[The Saltening]

can we sink it and tow Japan to fill in the space?

fuck yea

 

[Cheesegirl78]

"They come up with these cockamamie things all the time," said one unidentified older resident.

So is Berkeley the asshole of California that the rest of the state hates?

Pretty much, yes.

 

[CheezzyMach]

Pretty much, yes.

Good to know California isn't as batshit as the Kiwifarms says it is.

 

[Cheesegirl78]

Good to know California isn't as batshit as the Kiwifarms says it is.

No, just the Bay Area and Los Angeles.
The Cental Valley and inland are pretty red, along with anything north of Sacramento.
But those two areas get the votes and attention. I wish the state would split, or do something. I'm tired of the jokers ruining this state.
If the San Andreas fault would do its job and split, that would do a lot in solving the problem.

 

[Troutsmacked]

Good to know California isn't as batshit as the Kiwifarms says it is.

It's not so much the people who live there who are batshit as it is the people who are in charge either are batshit, or are at the mercy of the batshit. The major batshit areas hold majority of voting power. But the majority of California is actually very socially conservative. Those conservative voters luckily are able to make real impact on a local level but on state and national levels they're at the mercy of the combined power of San Francisco, Sacramento, and Los Angeles.

The idea to split California up into multiple states is actually a good one for this reason among others, but it will never happen because dems need those 50+ guaranteed electoral votes every presidential election and they know it.

 

[Webby's Boyfriend]

@Amber the Hedgehog
A female person who inherited something is called an heiress. Historically, the feminine ending -ess was attached to many nouns, like in modern French and Dutch, but it fell out of use in English except for a few special words, like actress and waitress and nobility titles.

I hope to god this shit follows the path of every other idiotic social trend from previous decades and dies in the 2020s.

Social Justice has the advantage of the internet, which previous mass hysterias didn't have. It is not only an American phenomenon now, like the Religious Right was, but has become a global nuisance. Though, in Western Europe, Social Justice mostly lives of astroturfing and in its worst forms, is confined to hugboxes... so far...

 

[Cheesegirl78]

It's not so much the people who live there who are batshit as it is the people who are in charge either are batshit, or are at the mercy of the batshit. The major batshit areas hold majority of voting power. But the majority of California is actually very socially conservative. Those conservative voters luckily are able to make real impact on a local level but on state and national levels they're at the mercy of the combined power of San Francisco, Sacramento, and Los Angeles.

The idea to split California up into multiple states is actually a good one for this reason among others, but it will never happen because dems need those 50+ guaranteed electoral votes every presidential election and they know it.

And they need the water.

 

[keyboredsm4shthe2nd]

@Amber the Hedgehog
A female person who inherited something is called an heiress. Historically, the feminine ending -ess was attached to many nouns, like in modern French and Dutch, but it fell out of use in English except for a few special words, like actress and waitress and nobility titles.


Social Justice has the advantage of the internet, which previous mass hysterias didn't have. It is not only an American phenomenon now, like the Religious Right was, but has become a global nuisance. Though, in Western Europe, Social Justice mostly lives of astroturfing and in its worst forms, is confined to hugboxes... so far...

It is true that "heiress" is historically the female form of "heir" but I see nothing wrong with using heir gender-neutrally (female heir, male heir, "s/he's the heir to my estate) instead of whatever re.tarded thing they suggested. Just like how the human race is colloquially referred to as "man". Take a non-issue and turn it into one so you can ignore the real ones, like how state asylums should be put back into practice for homeless folks' (folx) own good.

 

[Pontiff Sulyvahn]

So what will they called "pedophile acceptance"?

A normal day at the office for liberals.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

The theory that the elite want people to be genderless Borg-like drones sounds more credible now.

At least in California anyway.

 

[Coleslaw]

I mean it's just the city code. Far as I'm concerned they have the right to make whatever stylistic changes they want in it.

 

[Coleslaw]

My question is what do they call a locomotive fireman? They don't fight fires so you can't call the person a fire fighter, they don't drive a locomotive so you can't call them an operator/engineer and you can't do what the British do and call them a Secondman because it's got the word man in there.

Coal loader? Why would you need a term like that in the modern day?

 

[Lemmingwise]

Firefighters can be men or women, so that’s fine. A male firefighter being called a fireman also fine.
Police officers, men or women so that’s fine.

Everyone who has ever been pregnant is a woman.

One of these things is not like the other.

I mean, we let them, but they can't really do the job though.

Professional female fireman unable to do what an average man does in one try:

Female policeman nags her female partner to give her the cuffs because they can't physically stop one drunk man.

Female policeman keeps shrieking through the orders and escalating in a situation where initially the suspect was willing to talk.

While in running in persuit, female policeman says hi to a passerby (3:44):
(Also lets him put his hands into his pockets multiple times and waits with taser until he is climbing on top of something so that he falls for maximum damage)

 

[CharlesBarkley]

It's ok for women to suck at certain professions. Ain't no nigga ever becoming number one belly dancer or midwife.

 

[Lemmingwise]

So is Berkeley the asshole of California that the rest of the state hates?

Berkeley is to California what California is to the US.