Peter Rhodes on drones, blondes and a toolkit for our time
Britain may have quit the EU but English remains one of its official languages. A new EU document, Toolkit on Gender-Sensitive Communication, urges its law-makers to embrace neutral terms such as “high-pitched” rather than “shrill,” a word which is said to be “strongly associated with only women.”
Come again? I dare say there may be many women who are happy to be called something other than “shrill,” but I have yet to meet one who'd settle for “high-pitched” without reaching for a gender-neutral rolling pin.
In any case, how gender-sensitive is this EU document itself? “Toolkit,” for goodness' sake . . ?
