nonbinary<\/a> acceptance. The most obvious example is the adoption of the singular “they” to replace clunky constructions like “he or she” and \u201che\/she.\u201d<\/p>\nLanguage purists argue that this is ungrammatical, even though “they” has been employed in just this way by authors as diverse as Chaucer, Shakespeare, Austen, Dickinson, and Shaw.<\/p>\n
But it was a rapidly shifting cultural landscape that led to the swift adoption of the singular “they,” with most journalistic style guides endorsing its use during the 2010s. In 2019, this usage reached the height of linguistic respectability by being enshrined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary.<\/p>\n
Of Storms, Ships, and Countries<\/p>\n
But a wholesale transformation of English is far from complete, and referents involving gender can still be found, even in places where they don\u2019t really make much sense.<\/p>\n
Tropical storms and hurricanes originating in the Atlantic, for example, received female names starting in 1953, and this practice continued until 1979, when male names were added.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s still traditional to refer to ships and countries as feminine\u2014although this is not as common as it used to be. For example, one popular search engine returns about 118,000 results for the phrase \u201cMexico itself,\u201d but only 3,210 for \u201cMexico herself,\u201d and 59,300 results for \u201cPoland itself,\u201d but only 1,940 for \u201cPoland herself.\u201d In English, the identities of countries seem to be losing their gender.<\/p>\n
Progressions in the Professions<\/p>\n
During the 21st century, the focus has shifted to removing gender from occupations.<\/p>\n
This hasn’t been an issue in some domains, as many professions have always been gender-neutral. \u201cCarpenter,\u201d \u201cdean,\u201d \u201cdoctor,\u201d \u201clawyer,\u201d and \u201cprofessor\u201d would be examples of this.<\/p>\n
In other cases, a gendered term exists but is almost never used: \u201cauthoress,\u201d \u201caviatrix,\u201d \u201cexecutrix,\u201d \u201chuntress,\u201d \u201cmurderess,\u201d and \u201cusherette\u201d can be employed to denote gender, but female members of these groups are typically just authors, aviators, executors, hunters, murderers, and ushers.<\/p>\n
In some domains, there have always been two terms that are relatively equivalent, such as \u201ccowboy\u201d and \u201ccowgirl,\u201d \u201clandlord\u201d and \u201clandlady,\u201d \u201cheadmaster\u201d and \u201cheadmistress,\u201d and \u201chost\u201d and \u201chostess.\u201d<\/p>\n
But even here, the word pairs can have different connotations, and so a degendering process has been taking place. A \u201cbarmaid\u201d is not the same as a \u201cbarman\u201d (and both have largely been replaced by \u201cbartender\u201d). “Salesgirl\u201d and \u201csalesman\u201d imply different professional activities, so gender-neutral forms, such as \u201csales representative, \u201csales associate,\u201d or \u201csalesclerk,\u201d are now preferred.<\/p>\n
Some occupational titles seem to have lost their gender markers relatively quickly. \u201cBag boys\u201d are now \u201cbaggers,\u201d \u201cdoormen\u201d have become \u201cdoor attendants\u201d or \u201cconcierges,\u201d and \u201cmailmen\u201d are usually called \u201cletter carriers.\u201d<\/p>\n
And in many cases, the transformation can be as simple as the dropping of the gendered element. This has given us \u201cchair\u201d instead of \u201cchairman\/woman,\u201d \u201ccamera operator\u201d instead of \u201ccameraman\/woman,\u201d and \u201canchor\u201d instead of \u201canchorman\/woman.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gender equality can, of course, operate in both directions. As men began to enter occupations traditionally dominated by women, \u201cchambermaids\u201d and \u201ccleaning ladies\u201d became \u201chousekeepers,\u201d \u201cstewardesses\u201d became \u201cflight attendants,\u201d and \u201cwaitresses\u201d became \u201cservers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Occupational Oddities<\/p>\n
Some professions have been traditionally gendered for so long that one member of a gendered pair is rarely used.<\/p>\n
For professions that were historically dominated by women, this includes \u201cmasseuse\/masseur\u201d (who have evolved into \u201cmassage therapists\u201d), \u201cseamstress\/seamster\u201d (now usually just \u201ctailors\u201d), and \u201cballerina\/ballerino\u201d (they have all become \u201cballet dancers\u201d).<\/p>\n
For professions that were dominated by men, the gendered term may still be the preferred one. In the world of music, for example, we have \u201cmaestro\u201d\u2014even though the word \u201cmaestra\u201d exists\u2014and also \u201cconcertmaster,\u201d which is the preferred term over \u201cconcertmistress,” even for women who serve in this role.<\/p>\n
In some cases, the gendered professional term remains in use, either out of tradition or for some other reason.<\/p>\n
Female performers, for example, prefer to be called \u201cactors,\u201d even though an Academy Award is still given annually for Best Actress in a Motion Picture.<\/p>\n
Some professions that require a large amount of physical strength remain gendered, and with a masculine bias<\/a>: We have \u201clumberjacks\u201d but don\u2019t often refer to \u201clumberjills\u201d or \u201clumberpersons\u201d (although the gender-neutral \u201clogger\u201d now seems to be preferred). And \u201chandyperson\u201d hasn\u2019t really replaced \u201chandyman.\u201d<\/p>\nIn short, the modern degendering of English is continuing a centuries-long trajectory\u2014gradually, in terms of its grammar, but also suddenly\u2014and unevenly\u2014for its occupational vocabulary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Ernest Hemingway\u2019s The Sun Also Rises, Bill Gorton asks Mike Campbell how he went bankrupt. \u201cTwo ways,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-520421","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}