BRFR Cake Stop 'breaking news' miscellany

[Rusty Nails]

My point being that it's up to 'female airmen' (or their parents) to make that call, if they want to.

Sure, it's not going to be high on the list of priorities when a relation has been killed, but equally it's not up to others to tell them that it doesn't matter.

Who is telling them it doesn't matter?

 

[briantrumpet]

Who is telling them it doesn't matter?

You've confused me, as you'd just said that their parents probably don't care. I've no idea if they care or not. I'm sure Trump doesn't care.

 

[Rusty Nails]

You've confused me, as you'd just said that their parents probably don't care. I've no idea if they care or not. I'm sure Trump doesn't care.

Joining in the pedantry, saying their parents (families actually) probably don't care is not the same as 'telling them it doesn't matter'.

It is a comment based upon a personal opinion and not a corroborated thesis based on analysis of all the relevant evidence.

 

[icowden]

Actually, a good linguistic question. You can't do the 'firefighters' gambit, you can't call them 'pilots' (as that excludes the non-pilot 'airpeople'), and the latter sounds ridiculous.

It stems from a failure to understand etymology.

When these words were formed, men did not mean male. It's the plural of Man or Mann meaning human being or person. A werman was a male and wifman was a female.

So nothing wrong with airman or airmen.

 

[briantrumpet]

It stems from a failure to understand etymology.

When these words were formed, men did not mean male. It's the plural of Man or Mann meaning human being or person. A werman was a male and wifman was a female.

So nothing wrong with airman or airmen.

Etymology doesn't nail down a meaning for ever. Hell, it doesn't even nail it down for a single human lifetime. I don't think I need to consult the OED to illustrate what the accepted meanings for 'man' and woman' are in 2026.