Hi everyone, I thought that the term ‘stewardess’ was replaced by ‘flight attendant’. Is that so? I heard the term ‘stewardess’ in the BBC sitcom ‘Coupling’. That’s why I’m asking. Thanks, Torsten[YSaerTTEW443543]
TOEIC listening, photographs: At the supermarket[YSaerTTEW443543]
The politically correct brigade one use ‘Flight attendant’. An “ordinary member of the public” would be likely to use the term they had grown up with - ‘stewardess’, so an actor in a sitcom portraying an “ordinary person” would be quite likely to use ‘stewardess’ too.
In a similar way, people talk about a chairman (PC - chairperson), an actress (PC - actor - no distinguishment by gender), a binman (PC - refuse collector or similar). etc.
The unbiased Macmillan’s defines ‘stewardess’ as “old-fashioned a female flight attendant”.
The current trend to avoid any mention of a person’s gender–as Beees’ examples demonstrate–seems to be going as far as stressing the idea of a person being a female where it’s not necessary (like using ‘she’ while talking about a writer’s toil).
Is the next trend of political correctness to commend a person for being a gay/lesbian?
Does ‘‘Flight attendant’’ avoids gender mentioning?
Yes. An attendant can be male or female.