Hi Alphas,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Welcome to Alphaday 13, Season XVII. We\u2019re now coming to the end of this enjoyable and productive season. I think we\u2019re a brilliant group of writers with a motley variety of talents that bounce off each other and produce sparks that kindle new creative ventures to everyone\u2019s benefit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our next Alphaday is scheduled for the 3rd<\/sup> of June which is only a fortnight from now. That\u2019s because we aim to have a three-month annual break and return in September with our batteries fully charged and ready to surge ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your only task for Alphaday 14 is to complete our annual survey. It is an important task that I hope you\u2019ll complete conscientiously as it\u2019ll lay the foundations for our next season: Season XIIX \u2026 or do you prefer Season XVIII? I think the latter, even if it\u2019s longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My task for Alphaday 14 is to deliver the final Leaderboard and announce the (until then a carefully guarded secret) identity of this season\u2019s Alpha Laureate. The Cup will be handed over, corks will be popped, and we\u2019ll have our virtual end of season party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our Alpha group aims to offer useful, writerly activities. We want to stretch our limits and learn from the experience of others in a reciprocal give-and-take fashion while having fun in the process. Your ideas are welcome and necessary; we evolve as we go along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today\u2019s agenda is brief, but exciting nevertheless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alphaday 13, Season XVII agenda:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, it looks like I\u2019m hogging the show today. Sorry about that! As for the second item on the agenda, it is, as usual, a very full compilation of thoughtful feedback from everyone with helpful comments and suggestions to improve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Enjoy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n General news<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Linguistic habits aren\u2019t easily changed. Are you \u2013 for example \u2013 guilty of dialling<\/em> a number on a keyboard? That\u2019s a simple case of how old words don\u2019t just go away, and you may argue that the verb \u2018to dial\u2019 has adapted to modern technology \u2026 just as the CC in your email harks back to the days when you used real carbon paper (remember?) to make a Carbon Copy of your typewritten manuscript.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Changing our habits to make sure we use gender inclusive language can be even harder. A British Rail announcement, bellowed out from a loudspeaker recently, started with the familiar friendly greeting, \u201cGood afternoon, ladies and gentlemen \u2026 \u201c. The resulting twitter storm, whipped up by a number of non-binary passengers, caused BR to apologise profusely and promise to be more inclusive in future with a greeting along the lines of, \u201cGood afternoon, everyone.\u201d Well, that should do it! I think children might have protested as well, but as far as I know, they didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The English language has no grammatical gender. That, however, doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s gender neutral. In the 1970s we started a major clean-up of gender-biased vocabulary. The main problem was \/ is the fact that the word \u2018man\u2019 signifies \u2018a member of the human species\u2019. Used as a suffix to designate an employee, however, there was no getting away from the automatic association of -man with a male employee. Policemen end postmen were male.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We had to reform the androcentric language, and we tried. Police officers and postal workers are gender inclusive terms. We had a bit of fun in the process. Dinner ladies were renamed as \u201ceducation centre nourishment consultants\u201d; lollipop ladies (and lollipop lords!) as \u201ccrossing patrol officers\u201d etc. Landladies and landlords still exist, but more complicated issues such as the charwoman or charlady failed to morph into \u201ccharman\u201d and \u201ccharlord\u201d. What\u2019s wrong with the gender inclusive \u2018cleaner\u2019 anyway?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do we have a poetess or two in our group? Or perhaps some authoresses? To me those words are patriarchal and condescending terms that we can well do without.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019re still stuck with the word \u2018man\u2019 as referring to human beings generally. In other words you might need to specify that \u2018male men\u2019 were hunters and \u2018female men\u2019 were gatherers. The fact that it sounds ridiculous proves the problem is there. We need to rephrase and say \u2018female members of the human species\u2019 and \u2018male\u2019 dittos. John Milton would undoubtedly argue strongly that the word \u2018man\u2019 is indeed gender inclusive. The very first line of his epic poem, Paradise Lost, <\/em>goes like this: \u201cOf man\u2019s first disobedience and the fruit \/ of that forbidden tree \u2026\u201d That man <\/em>surely did include a woman in the disobedient deed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s still a long way to go before women, children and other non-binary chattel have quite escaped from the category of \u2018movable possessions\u2019. We\u2019re working on it \u2026 or at least some of us are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Christine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hi Alphas, Welcome to Alphaday 13, Season XVII. We\u2019re now coming to the end of this enjoyable and productive season. 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