White House reconsiders pick of ‘Founding Founders’ over ‘Founding Fathers’
Throughout United States history, the group of men who assembled in Philadelphia in 1787 to write the nation’s Constitution had been known as the “Founding Fathers,” a moniker used even on official government websites.
But the use of the “fathers” may have been a step too far for the Obama administration. In a Thursday post on the White House’s blog, Keith Donohue, the communications director for the National Historical Publications and Records Commission at the National Archives, announced that the papers of the “Founding Founders,” otherwise known as the Founding Fathers, are available online.
Chances are, the original headline was just a typo, but it does bring to mind recent efforts to rid ourselves of archaic terminology which is reflective of a male dominated (aka repressive and evil... unless you're a Muslim) society. Why not free ourselves from the shackles of gender weighted words entirely? Here's a "modest proposal'!
Let's just vote the term "father" right off the island entirely. The proper designation should be "sperm donor". Likewise, the outmoded term "mother" should be replaced with a less schmaltzy appellation like "incubator". A person tasked with the care and feeding of the product of the sperm donor and the incubator should henceforth be referred to as a "parental unit". To differentiate between or among parental units simply add a trailing numeral. Finally, 'woman and man', 'male and female' should also be banished for obvious reason! (Can you say *sexist*? . . . I thought you could!) These could be supplanted by their more scientifically precise identifiers of xx and xy (If you're unsure of your proper classification, you can look it up here).
Now, there are probably many more expressions that need revision, but this is a good start, though it's likely to make the greeting card industry unhappy! . . . I wonder what our "Founding Parental Units" would think!?
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