It’s political correctness run amok.
According to a Jan. 7 article in the Navy Times, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus has called for a review of all job titles to explore options for removing all references to “man.”
If changes are stripped of gender designations, titles such as seaman or yeoman would no longer exist. A personnelman would probably become a personnel specialist.
Currently, there are 21 Navy job titles that include the word “man,” according to the Navy Times.
“This is an opportunity to update the position titles and descriptions themselves to demonstrate through this language that women are included in these positions,” Mabus wrote in a letter on the subject.
In his letter, Mabus said that he wants the results of the review no later than April 1.
Now that we’re 40-plus years beyond the bra-burning 1970s, there isn’t a discernible national movement to gender neutralize titles.
Granted, newspapers are expected to be the beacon for such notions, but this strikes us as a big waste of time and resources for our United States military leadership.
In response to a post on this subject on the Whidbey News-Times Facebook page, the suggestion of gender neutral Navy titles went over like a lead balloon with as many women as men.
Said one commenter, “A little too politically correct for my taste. Seriously though, I don’t really care about titles and I’m a woman.”
Said another, “My son was an airMAN my daughter-in-law a yeoMAN she thinks its stupid. She was proud to be a yeoMAN.
Lastly, we think this woman summed things up well: “This is ridiculous. These titles are Navy tradition. I feel most women in the Navy view these names as appropriate to the life they have chosen. The fact that women are now being accepted in all of the designations is what matters. The Navy has more important things to do than waste ‘manpower’ on this.”
The Navy does have more important things to do. Beyond focusing on protection of this nation and its interests, military leadership should be spending energy on improving pay for service personnel.
Making health and family services more available to veterans also sounds like a much better priority.
