歐盟禁止使用"小姐" "夫人"稱呼女性

The European Parliament has banned the terms 'Miss' and 'Mrs' in case they offend female MEPs.

The politically correct rules also mean a ban on Continental titles, such as Madame and Mademoiselle, Frau and Fraulein and Senora and Senorita.

Guidance issued in a new 'Gender-Neutral Language' pamphlet orders politicians to address female members by their full name only.

Officials have alo ordered that 'sportsmen' be called 'athletes', 'statesmen' be referred to as 'political leaders' and even that 'synthetic' or 'artificial' be used instead of 'man-made'.

The guidance lists banned terms for describing professions, including fireman, air hostess, headmaster, policeman, salesman, manageress, cinema usherette and male nurse.

However MEPs are still allowed to refer to 'midwives' as there is no accepted male version of the job description.

The booklet also admits that "no gender-neutral term has been successfully proposed" to replace 'waiter' and 'waitress', allowing parliamentarians to use these words in a restaurant or café.

It has been circulated by Harold Romer, the parliament's secretary general, to the 785 MEPs working in Brussels and Strasbourg.

Struan Stevenson, a Scottish Conservative MEP described the guidelines as "political correctness gone mad."

He said: "We have seen the EU institutions try to ban the bagpipes and dictate the shape of bananas, but now they see determined to tell us which words we are entitled to use in our own language."

Philip Bradbourn, another Conservative MEP, vowed to ignore the booklet, which he described as a "waste of taxpayers' money" and called on Mr Romer to reveal its cost.

He added: "I will have no part of it. I will continue to use my own language and expressions, which I have used all my life, and will not be instructed by this institution or anyone else in these matters."

Seven years ago, an attempt to amend noise laws came close to effectively outlawing bagpipes.

However, a number of bizarre EU rules remain in place, including a directive stating that every pair of rubber boots must be supplied with a user's manual in 12 languages.

歐洲議會日前頒發一項新規則，禁止使用“Miss（小姐）”和“Mrs（夫人）”稱呼女性，以免冒犯女性議員。

同時，歐洲大陸的類似稱謂也被禁用，如Madame 和Mademoiselle（法語）, Frau和 Fraulein （德語）以及 Senora 和 Senorita（西班牙語）等。

這項名爲“中性語言”的新規則規定政界人士在稱呼女性時必須使用全名。

此外，在稱呼運動員時應用athletes來代替sportsmen，在稱呼政治家時應用political leaders代替statesmen，甚至在表達“人造”時也要用synthetic或artificial來代替man-made。

這一規則列出了一批描述職業禁用詞彙，其中包括fireman（消防員），airhostess（空中小姐），headmaster（校長），policeman（警察）， salesman（銷售員）， manageress（女經理）， cinema usherette（影院女引座員） 和 male nurse（男護士）等。

不過類似midwives（助產士）這種沒有對應的另一種性別稱謂的詞語還可以繼續使用。

手冊中還提到，“目前沒有合適的中性詞語”來取代waiter和waitress這兩個詞，所以議員們在餐館或咖啡館還可繼續使用它們。

這本手冊由歐洲議會祕書長哈羅爾德•羅默頒發，適用於在布魯塞爾和斯特拉斯堡工作的785名議員。

蘇格蘭保守派議員斯圖恩•史蒂文森稱這一規則是“政治正確性狂熱”的一種表現。

他說：“歐洲議會曾試圖禁止使用風笛，規定香蕉的形狀，現在他們又來告訴我們在使用自己的語言時有權使用哪些詞語。”

另外一位保守派議員菲利普•布拉德布恩表示不會理會這個規則，他評價稱，頒佈這個規則“是在浪費納稅人的錢”，並要求羅默公佈成本。

他說：“我不會理會這些規定。我將繼續使用自己的語言和表達，我都用了一輩子了，不會去聽從這個機構或某個人的指示。”

七年前，歐洲議會曾試圖修訂噪音法，內容甚至包括禁止使用風笛，不過最終沒有通過。

儘管如此，歐盟還是有不少稀奇古怪的規定，其中包括橡膠靴的使用手冊必須要翻譯成12種語言。