Originally Posted by
LOMCEVAK
The word ‘mankind’ includes all members of the species. Therefore, this is a analogous to ‘airman’ applying to all who serve in an Air Force. Any sensible English speaker knows that ‘airman’ applies to all.
I am a total grammar pedant and am a stickler for unambiguous descriptions. However, even I acknowledge common interpretations and meaning such as this.
Many will sympathise with that, but I fear that the only people who can now make that argument and have any chance of getting away with it are our elected masters. It would need one of them to stand up and say “enough of all this: this is how it’s going to be“. I suspect there are political analysts working out whether it’s worth the Tories taking such a stand (on cultural issues in general, not this specific one!) to win votes among the ‘no-nonsense‘ traditional working classes. They probably don’t have many votes to lose among those concerned about social justice, let’s face it. But too much ground has already been given on these matters among the higher echelons of officialdom (Civil Service and military) for anyone else to dare suggest such a thing.
Ultimately, as Orwell recognised, linguistic games like these are inherently political. And I think the seniors will be on shaky ground if they try to deal with them without political input.