Originally Posted by
Red Line Entry
So a lot of discussion ongoing about finding a collective noun to equate to soldiers and sailors. I agree that ‘officers, airmen and airwomen’ is somewhat clunky but what to use instead?
‘Aviator’ seems the favourite at the moment, but before you all start quoting dictionaries, you do have to then accept an interpretation of the word that is:
a. Gender neutral by discounting the word aviatrix (in the same way the term actor now applies to women rather than actress).
b. Applicable to all those involved in the business of aviation (ie in the RAF), rather than just those who actually fly.
Or is there a better term?
The second issue revolves about the rank of Aircraftman (and LAC and SAC) which officially applies to women too - I believe their rank is not, bizarrely Aircraftwoman. It’s the only rank we have that is gendered, so how about changing that too, in the same way that the RN moved away from Able Seaman to Able Rate. One proposal is to change the term to ‘Specialist’ (or for the techies, ‘Technician’)
Now this is Pprune, so I fully expect the usual suspects to tell me that this is Political Correctness gone mad and how in the 80’s even the women were real men, but FWIW, my view is that it is both an easy thing to change and something that we ought to do. The test to me is that, as a bloke, would you want your rank to be ‘Aircraftwoman’?
Personally I think "aircraft specialist" is the best bet. Aviator implies too heavily in modern English that one flies.