SoS Defence piles in:-
Armed forces to get new guidance on how to use 'inclusive language'
The new guide includes more inclusive ways to address disability, race, gender, age, religion, sexual orientation and social mobility
ByDominic Nicholls, DEFENCE AND SECURITY EDITOR12 December 2021 • 4:16pm
Admiral Sir Tony Radakin pictured in April CREDIT: PA
The armed forces are to be given new guidance on “inclusive language” after the Defence Secretary said he is “unhappy” with the current advice.
Military personnel from all three services had been told to avoid using phrases such as "crippled with debt" or "blind drunk".
The MoD said its Inclusive Language Guide 2021 was a “practical toolkit” to help servicemen and women understand why “certain words or use of language is hurtful or non-inclusive”.
A senior defence source told the Telegraph: "The Defence Secretary and Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS) have been clear that the UK armed forces must modernise to tackle the threats of the future. That includes our approach to our people who are critical to that task.
“The Defence Secretary is unhappy with the current approach set out in the guide. A revised version will be published in the coming weeks."
The guide will be taken down from the MoD website while changes are made.
The guide, produced by the MoD's Diversity and Inclusion Directorate, denies being "an attempt to police language" or "restrict your personal style of communication", but was created to help staff "speak more powerfully, precisely and respectfully", according to the Mail on Sunday.
It recommended avoiding phrases such as "deaf to our pleas" in case it offended the disabled.
The 30-page pamphlet said the words "woman" and "female" “mean different things but are often used interchangeably”, adding: “Referring to women as females is perceived by many as reducing a woman to her reproductive parts and abilities.
“Not all women are biologically female, and the conflation of ‘female’ to ‘woman’ erases gender nonconforming people and members of the trans community.”
“The women in the platoon” is said to be a more inclusive phrase than “the females in the platoon”.
The guide includes more inclusive ways to address disability, race, gender, age, religion, sexual orientation and social mobility. The MoD wants personnel to put the “person first”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/202...sive-language/
For those who can't see the text in the telegraph, the article is above.
It would seem the SoS defence is not happy with the guidance. Does that mean it does not go far enough, or does it go too far? My reading is that it goes too far. Is it at odds with CAS and aviator?