Britain’s Royal Navy is to replace ‘seaman’ in rank titles and ban the use of ‘unmanned’ and ‘manpower’ in a bid to fight fears of sexism.
Sources say there was an acceptance within the force that some terms are no longer appropriate and considered problematic and that leaders wanted to get rid of gendered terms where possible.
It comes after the word ‘seaman’ was dropped by the Canadian Navy, though this was reportedly due to its ‘double entendre’.
A source said: ‘The problem is that sea-person sounds a bit rubbish. There’s a lot of history attached to the seaman rank and we know there will be resistance.’
Among Britain’s other armed forces, there are a number of male specific ranks including guardsman in the Army, with no female equivalents, but no similar plans to make changes have been unveiled, while the RAF is the only service with specifically female ranks.
The only good thing about the continued decline of so many Western armed forces it that it makes it less likely that the criminal elite in charge will feel that they can actually go to war with Russia, Iran or China.
