HUGHES’ VIEWS

IT IS not exactly widely
known — even among my
closest friends — but I con-
sider myself to be one of
the world’s foremost an-

glers.

Some of my fellow sportsmen
cefer to me as another Izaak
Walton, even though in the inter-
est of keeping the hitarity under
control, I’ve dispensed with the
powdered wig and gold-buckled
shoes.

Others think of me as the next
Roderick Haig-Brown.

One feliow, after witnessing a
rather superb casting manoeuvre
that inexplicably snagged the hind
leg of his pet spaniel on the far
shore, actually called me ‘‘the
biggest Ted Pecker’’ he had ever
met.

Perhaps I heard him wrong.

Anyway, despite the truth (or
tack of same) of the above
plaudits, I’ve always thought of
myself as a fisherman, Until
recently, that is. Now it turns out
that a significant portion of the
population is offended by the
word,

Now — and you should pay at-
tention here — it is not the sylla-
ble fish that has got these people
upset. That I could understand.

[t is, any way you look at it, an
almost intolerable abuse of the
language. If the truth be known,
there aren’t great quantities of
fish involved with what I do.

Tend to specialize more in
great chunks of kelp, the odd
boot, and, on good days, the hin-
dquarters of small mammals.

But the fuss has nothing
whatever to do with the word fish,
and everything to do with the
word man, a three-letter XY
chromosome of a word that has
about as much chance of surviving
to the year 2000 as the ashtray.

The correct term to use, ap-
parently, is fisher, a gender-
neutral expression that seems to
roll off the tongue with all the
completeness of a reel without the
tod attached.

Still, if the word fisherman of-
fends, let’s get rid of it. The
English language will manage
without.

A language that doesn’t change
with the times eventually dies
from the sheer weight of its own
boredom.

-Personally, 1 don’t miss having
to utter ‘‘Forsooth!’’ or ‘Verily,
verily I say unto thee..." every
time I open my mouth.

Nevertheless, § fail to see how
excising every reference to the
male half of the species from my
Funk and Wagnalls is going to
help the cause of feminism any.
To do so only makes the language
we speak and write an an-
drogynous lump, with all the
potency of a gelded stud horse.

Whether someone should be
referred to as a chair or a chair-
man; whether we should cal! our
species mankind or personkind is

Caught in the language net

46... a three-letter XY chromosome of a
word that has about as much chance of
surviving to the year 2000 as the
ashtray. 99

almost Lilliputian in its relevance.

Such trivial concerns smack of
fanaticism, and only contribute to
an equally fanatical resistance to
all that feminism stands for.

Itis not that there aren’t wor-
thy causes worth espousing. Equal
pay for equal! work for instance:
the campaign to stop violence
directed against women; and the
problem of too few women occu-
pying positions of power.

Perhaps we could address those
issues first before we start muck-
ing about with the grammar
books.

Words, after all, are an exten-
sion of thought, and until wrong
thinking is changed, uttering
words — even politically correct
ones — is nothing more or less
than a lie.

In the meantime, if it makes
you feel better, you can call me a
fisher. Until they make it illegal,
however, 1'll still think of myself
in terms of that other word.

But as my wife — or should I
say partner? — is only too apt to
point oul, neither expression is ~
likely to improve my catch.

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