Thursday, June 02, 2016



Defense Secretary Ponders How to Change 'Unmanned' Job Titles to Gender-Neutral Wording

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter expressed openness today to editing military job titles to make "man" more gender-neutral, even as he struggled with a way to make "unmanned" less masculine.

The Marine Corps Times reported last week that the service is reviewing its job titles -- rifleman, infantryman, etc. -- in the wake of all combat roles being opened to women and a January directive from Navy Secretary Ray Mabus for the Corps and the Navy to ensure those job descriptions are gender-neutral.

Every job title that includes "man" is up for review and potentially on the editing block.

Meeting with reporters today at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, R.I., Carter was asked whether he saw "a benefit or a need to do that throughout the military."

Carter said it was "a very good question."

"And, you know, of course one wants to signify a reality, which is a very favorable reality for us in defense, of the modern era, which is that we're making full use of the wonderful talents of half of the population of the country," he said.

"And it would be a huge mistake not to do so. And that's why I wanted to see all military operational specialties opened to qualified females. That doesn't mean that they'll get in and it doesn't mean that they'll choose to do it. But it does mean that I have the opportunity to pick from the entire population of the country. And since it's an all-volunteer force, I would be -- wouldn't be fulfilling the needs of having the best force if I weren't fishing in the widest possible pond."

Carter stressed "that's the logic behind the position of women in our Department of Defense in today's world."

"And signifying that in all appropriate ways is I think exactly that -- very appropriate and needed," he added.

SOURCE 


8 comments:

Bird of Paradise said...

The PC nonsense just gets stupider each day with all this gender based poppycock before long they will be gender nuetral on nursery rhimes

Anonymous said...

It's 'man' and 'men' which are the neutral gender words. By adding 'wo' to indicate female is making the distinction. Likewise 'he' is neutral and s-he for female is indicating the female version of hu-mans.

Spurwing Plover the fighting shorebird said...

Then theres MEN AT WORK and i can still remeber those roadside work signs FLAGMAN AHEAD

King Condor said...

Anon 8:21 Most of the little collage snots cant read much past DADDIES ROOM MATE

Anonymous said...

And they wonder why they are losing wars and respect around the world. Until they can focus on winning wars rather than sexism there will be only one outcome and it won't be good. They are soldiers, sailors or air force personnel and need no further clarification. As usual it's the air force stuffing up definitions again.

Jub Jub Bird said...

We all would be under german control if we were forced to abide by this PC nonsense back during WW II

Anonymous said...

I occasionally have cause to address groups of psychs, counsellors and social workers, and they hate gender terms and any white man who uses them. I always open with "Good morning/afternoon ladies and gentlemen", and finish with, "Thank you ladies and gentlemen for you time and attention", because I believe that is courteous and respectful. Often there are no men present, so I just use the term "ladies". It is more respectful than any other collective feminine term I know. Every time I say it I observe feminists tight faces and hard eyes leaking anger but I ignore that. On one occasion one of them called me sexist and demanded I not use the word ladies. I told her I would continue to treat her and others respectfully whether she wanted me to or not.

I occasionally address other kinds of people too, who do not simmer at hearing the terms "ladies and gentlemen". They are ordinary well adjusted people, not insane like most feminists are.

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, not all women are "ladies" and not all men are "gentlemen", either in their behavior or background.