Boy, even George Orwell couldn’t have predicted this garbage.
On Thursday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed Senate Bill S536A, which bans the word “salesman” and other instances of “gendered language” in certain New York statutes. The legislation replaces instances of the word “salesmen” with the word “salespeople” and, of course, axes gendered pronouns “his” or “her” in favor of “their.”
I mean, why not? All the other problems in the state have been fixed, right?
“This legislation amends Real Property Tax Law Article 12-a to change the word salesman to salesperson,” the bill reads. “Further this legislation removes gendered language from the Article by removing references to ‘his or her’ in favor of ‘their,’ changes ‘himself’ to ‘themselves,’ as well as appropriate changes to variations of these words.”
“Jobs have no gender, but unfortunately, many of our State’s laws still use gendered language when discussing professions that are practiced by people of all genders,” New York State Sen. Anna M. Kaplan, a co-sponsor of the bill, said. “It’s important that we update these antiquated sections of the law to reflect our New York values and send a message that everyone, regardless of gender, should be able to pursue their passions.”
Because there are so many women who didn’t go into sales because of the term “salesman”?
Join the conversation as a VIP Member