City ditches gender-specific words like ‘manhole’ and ‘policeman’

A US city has voted to ban a list of common words like “manhole” in a move opponents say is political correctness gone mad.  Berkeley City Council voted in favour of the controversial ban during a council meeting this week.

It means shortly, the Californian city’s municipal code will be changed, with around 35 words replaced with “gender-neutral language”.

On the hit list are masculine and feminine pronouns, which means “he” and “she” will be switched to “they” and “them” in an effort to “promote equality”.

Other gendered terms will change to specific nouns such as the teacher or the council member.

“Manhole” will be replaced with “maintenance hole”, “manpower” with “human effort” and “fraternal” with “social”.

Moving forward, “heirs” will change to “beneficiaries” and “maiden” name to “family”.

The move was put forward by Berkeley City Council member Rigel Robinson and colleagues Cheryl Davila, Ben Bartlett and Lori Drost, and it was passed on Tuesday night without any comment or controversy among council members.

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