Issue: Sexism and Language
Background information David Morrison, who is currently Australian of the Year and chair of the Diversity Council and was the army chief, has released a video statement about sexism in the language of the workplace. He suggested that the word "guys" should be avoided because it is sexist. There was much reaction ranging from those claiming that the word is not gender-specific, to those who accused him of being part of the word police and to those who said that he made a good point and that people over-reacted.
Article 1
Sorry, guys — political correctness gone mad? Political Editor Tory Shepherd, The Advertiser June 1, 2016 9:30pm ONE of our top military guys has been panned for saying we should get rid of the word “guys”. Former Army Chief and current Australian of the Year David Morrison on Wednesday launched a new diversity program calling on Australians to stop using gendered terms in workplaces. “I have now removed that (the word guys) from my lexicon as best I can; I think it’s important,” General Morrison said. He added that it was about creating a “real diversity of thinking” and not about being the “language police”. Senior politicians of both sexes immediately rejected the idea. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said such things could go “too far”. “There are some generic words that should not cause offence,” she said. Her Liberal colleague Senator Cory Bernardi was unsurprisingly more direct. “The guys and gals promoting this nonsense need to take a deep breath and a reality check,” he told The Advertiser. “Rather than promoting Orwell’s vision
of newspeak, perhaps they could address some serious matters of public interest.” Meanwhile, Senator Bernardi was himself under fire for retweeting a misogynist “pick up artist”. The tweet itself was a link to a 2014 blog about how liberal feminist “vigilantes” are silencing white men. The website is run by Daryush “Roosh the Douche” Valizadeh, who has said he has had experiences that “could be considered rape” and has been called a “pro-rape pick-up artist”. Senator Bernardi said he didn’t endorse the author’s other views. On use of the word “guys”, SA Independent Senator Nick Xenophon
pointed out that people didn’t say “actresses” anymore and actors had become a generic word for men and women. “I think ‘guys’ is in the same vein as ‘actor’,” he said. “I’m sure Mr Morrison was well intentioned in what he said but somehow I think there are more serious things to worry about.” The “Words at Work” campaign also uses a video warning that the “power of words” can be bad for you. It uses a skit of a dirty office kitchen with a handwritten warning for workers to clean up after themselves. “Your Mum doesn’t work here!!!” it says, before General Morrison edits it to say “Mum/Dad”.
Article 2
LETTERS
JUNE 2 2016
Letters to the Editor: 'Guy' talk not sexist Australian of the Year David Morrison seems to have a bee in his bonnet over the use of the word "guys" in the workplace ("Bishop rejects words at work campaign," June 2). The Macquarie experts say "guys" is not sexist as it is a genderneutral word and can be used in an inclusive sense to address men and women and has been used in Australia for 10 to 15 years now. Macquarie Dictionary senior editor Victoria Morgan said that in Australia, teenagers started using "guys" as a gender-neutral term in the '80s and it has since been used to refer to a group people of both genders. She said the word "guys" was not a term that carried an inherently sexist connotation and came into usage without any power struggle between the genders and "It's a word I use all the time". Are people really offended by this word? In my opinion, this word is a modern day Australian collective noun and I have never heard anybody ever say that it was offensive. I think Mr Morrison should take a chill pill and stop poking the hornets' nest to seemingly justify his role as Australian of the Year. Gerry Coleman Bassendean (WA) Maybe I have missed something David Morrison has been involved in other than being the face of the new Diversity Council of Australia, but it would seem five months as Australian of the Year is a long time to suddenly come up with the idea that we should all stop saying "Hi guys" to our colleagues and friends. Megan Heaney Kincumber
Giam Swiegers, the global chief executive of engineering and design firm Aurecon, in defence of David Morrison's frivolous attempt at stamping out "guys", defends the accusation of political correctness by the meaningless expression "it's the right thing to do". Bravo! Just another way of saying: "I am right, you are wrong." World wars have been fought with that simplistic mentality (not to mention Crusades and ISIS). Emmanuel Valaris Fingal Bay I predict that David Morrison will target misogynistic dooropeners next. Andrew Stark East Gosford
I agree with David Morrison's aversion to "guys" as a term for a group of men and women but I fear that it is so widespread these days that it would be impossible to do away with it. A better target would be to promote the use of "woman". Most men can't bring themselves to use this perfectly fine word, preferring the demeaning "girl" or, what was once a class term, "lady". Thus most public toilets are labelled "men" and "ladies". It may be a lost cause, given the dynamic nature of our language, but it's worth a crack. Andrew Macintosh Cromer
If David Morrison wants to stop Australians referring to women as "girls" he might need to start by "embedding" himself in Australian women's sports teams. From the Matildas to the Diamonds to the Southern Stars, none of our women sporting stars shy away from saying "how well the girls played today", "how proud I am of the girls", "how the girls have learned they'll just have to perform better next time if they want a crack at the finals", or how "the girls are looking forward to going to Rio". Clearly, this is unacceptably self-demeaning, and needs to stop. Ross Duncan Potts Point
David Morrison, Australian of the Year, is making a fool of himself with his campaign to end use of the word "guys" because it excludes women. Any woman who jumps on this bandwagon will be making a fool of herself (himself?) too. What Morrison should have done first was to consult some of the women who use language professionally. Actresses, authoresses and editresses decided long ago that the male forms of their working names included them too, and no one objected. So if a woman wants to be one of the guys, she has only to decide to be one. After that, Morrison should have looked back on his own career. Any Chief of Army knows that the constitution refers to the Governor-General only as "he" – yet Chief of Army David Morrison was perfectly happy to have all the armed forces commanded by a Governor-General who was a woman. Quentin Bryce was definitely one of the guys back then, with no need to make any sort of politically correct changes. Grant Agnew Coopers Plains (Qld)
Article 3
How to get outraged in three easy steps Jacqueline Maley Now he's not running the army, David Morrison has too much time on his hands, and has taken to taunting the spirit of Voltaire with assaults on free speech. Morrison is chair of the Diversity Council, and in that guise he released a video asking people to examine the casual sexism that creeps into language used at work. Morrison makes the uncontroversial point that words have the power to colour perceptions. He said he is trying to expunge "guys" (when used as a generic second person plural) from his own lexicon, because he thinks it is implicitly sexist. This amounted to an attack on freedom of speech. We know this because members of the media used their newspaper columns/radio shows/ Twitter accounts to tell us so. No water-cooler chat was safe. Morrison was trying to "police" our language. George Orwell was turning in his grave (although on Thursday night The Footy Show's Beau Ryan did a good job advancing the free speech cause with his "fun" racist jokes regarding an Asian woman). Every male boss who ever walked into a room and said "Hellllo ladies!" (all offices have one) was transformed into a glamorous freedom fighter, a middle management Nelson Mandela standing against the tyranny of political correctness. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop was asked about the "guys" thing at a press conference – attended by numerous members of the free press – and sombrely stated that we shouldn't "interfere with the freedom of speech in this country".
As a journalist who has been reared in newsrooms where the language deployed is fruity and abundant, I have no problem with "guys". It is not remotely as Anglo-Saxon as many of the endearments thrown around in certain contexts but not wisely repeated in front of one's mother. The beauty of language is its flexibility and in the ability of each person to use it for his or her own purposes. But as a journalist and columnist, I also understand the need to find new things to rail against each week. There is a constant requirement for a fresh source of outrage into which to dip one's pen. And what greater outrage is there to a journalist than an affront to freedom of speech? Especially by lefties who would have us all speak in gender neutral pronouns and use unisex bathrooms. So it is in this spirit of collegiality I offer up to my fellow hacks the following example of an actual true and real threat to freedom of speech in this country. It is for use by any journalist, commentator, or hell, even dinner party bore, who needs a genuine source of righteous indignation. My apologies, but well-meaning videos made by Australians of the Year do not appear. The liberty to engage in Facebook rants As social media sashays to the centre of the public discourse, there is increasing debate over the rights of public servants, or anyone funded by the taxpayer dime, to use their social media accounts to shake their fist at The Man.
There have been several cases of public servants being sacked for breaking with the rules of impartiality and ranting (usually left-wingishly) on Facebook, or even the more public forum of Twitter. The freshest example is Roz Ward, who manages the controversial "Safe Schools" program through her post at LaTrobe University. Ward has Marxist views, and was "exposed" as having called the Australian flag "racist" in a comment on her own private Facebook page. She has been suspended from her position with the university. News Corp have gone after Ward particularly hard. The adage attributed to Voltaire about defending your right to say mean things about the Aussie flag even if you disagree with those mean things (I paraphrase from the original French) perhaps doesn't apply to left-wing academics. There you go, freedom fighters: that should be enough to get you started. Unless, of course, it's more satisfying, and less like hard work, to knock down a straw man who dares suggest, in a wellmeaning video with rather low production values, that we be thoughtful when we talk to each other. In that case, as you were.
Australian of the Year David Morrison says employees should not use "non-inclusive" words like "guys". Photo: Graham Tidy