Musings & Rants

PC Problem...

It's common these days to go to a lot of trouble to avoid using any gender-specific titles in the business world, rather than changing the title depending on the incumbant (you know, 'firefighter' instead of 'fireman' or 'firewoman', and so on).

This is a laudable concept, although it can lead to some rather awkward coined terms. However, there is one English language concept that's completely ignored by the people who do this... not surprising, considering we're talking about people who come up with words like 'palletise' and 'productise'.

The thing is, while they bend over backwards to avoid using words like 'chairman', they're quite happy to use words like 'facilitator' and 'director'...

...and these words are, of course, masculine in exactly the same way as 'chairman'.

There is, of course, a feminine version of these words:

Masculine	Feminine
Director	Directrix
Facilitator	Facilitatrix
Dominator	Dominatrix

...and so on.

So, if you're female, and your company policy insists that you 'facilitate' a meeting, rather than 'chair' it, insist on being called The Facilitatrix. Similarly, females co-equal with male Directors should insist on their titles being 'Directrix'. It'll bug the hell out of the PC morons in your office, and with any luck they'll put a bit more thought into coming up with a more suitable term.

(If you're going to do this, remember that the plurals are 'facilitatrices' and 'directrices'. You don't want to get caught out...)

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