Latest / The Slippery Slope / Australian Defence Force Adopt Gender-Neutral Language
Transcript
- 0:10Low. All right, Jay Fallon, if you're
- 0:13listening, well, then you're listening to the slippery slope.
- 0:15Thanks for listening. So listen, the story had come up
- 0:18and I I find it, I find it a little weird for where we're
- 0:21going as a nation. When you look at something you
- 0:26always want in your nation, OK? No matter what's happening, what
- 0:31other kind of civil, what's happening in the civilian world,
- 0:35what kind of civilian rests or unrest might be happening.
- 0:40Like at the moment, we've had, we've had some protests, we've
- 0:46had some process going on about the like pro Palestinian
- 0:49movements and all this kind of thing, and we've had some weird
- 0:52things going on in the nation. However, I always thought that
- 0:56no matter what's going on. What kind of civil unrest may be
- 1:00going on. What you need to be able to rely
- 1:03on in a nation that I think is well structured is you need to
- 1:07be able to rely on the stability of your of your of your
- 1:13military. And at the moment I'm not I'm
- 1:16not convinced that we can rely on this.
- 1:18Let's look at this this article here.
- 1:21Now it's talking about how Liz Storer, who's a She's a from the
- 1:25Sky News Liz Storer Storer. Criticizes ADF That's Australian
- 1:30Defence Force's decision to adopt gender neutral language.
- 1:36So anyway, it goes down stores. Criticism of the ADS decision
- 1:39represents A viewpoint opposing linguistic modifications that
- 1:43promote gender neutrality. Her critique invites questions
- 1:48about the implications of altering established
- 1:51terminologies. In traditionally male dominated
- 1:55fields such as defense and military operations, it also
- 1:59underscores the ongoing social debate on language, gender, and
- 2:03inclusivity. Look, I'm I'm all for
- 2:07inclusivity when it comes to the military.
- 2:09As in, as long as we understand that there is only male and
- 2:13female in this world, there is no non binary.
- 2:15There's no such thing as non binary.
- 2:17There's no such thing as, you know, whatever name you want to
- 2:20make up for your supposed gender.
- 2:22You are only male or female, so I'm all for inclusivity.
- 2:27Inclusivity can't talk probably today when it comes to that, but
- 2:30we've got to keep it within the realms of reality and not some
- 2:35someone's fantasy anyway, so it goes on.
- 2:38The IDs initiative represents a broader trend of adopting gender
- 2:41neutral language in various professional settings, the
- 2:45adoption of gender neutral terminology in defense.
- 2:50A military context is a departure from traditional
- 2:53language. The ADF aims to foster
- 2:55inclusivity within its ranks, signaling a commitment to
- 2:59modernizing its language and practices.
- 3:01However, as Stora's criticism highlights, this linguistic
- 3:04shift has its detractors who argue that such changes could be
- 3:08detrimental to establish practices and traditions, goes
- 3:14on talking about the implications of language
- 3:15choices. So the debate surrounding the
- 3:17ADF terminology changes. Raises questions about the
- 3:21impact of language on perceptions, traditions and
- 3:24inclusivity. The ideas commitment to
- 3:27inclusivity and diversity reflected in its language
- 3:30choices aligns with the broader efforts to address gender bias
- 3:37and equality within the armed forces.
- 3:40The criticism, however, indicates that adoption of
- 3:42gender neutral language may be perceived as a departure from
- 3:46established norms. The the debate over gender
- 3:50neutral language serves as a reflection of wider societal
- 3:54discussions about representation, equality and the
- 3:57rule of language and shaping cultural norms.
- 4:02Now, why the the main reason why I'm talking about this?
- 4:07Like I said, if there's one thing that you want in a nation
- 4:10that's you know, a stable nation, nation that can run even
- 4:15no matter what else is happening in their in their world, no
- 4:17matter what. And who's protesting?
- 4:19Who's getting up and talking about what?
- 4:21What other ideas are out there floating around?
- 4:23You want a military that is stable in there thinking.
- 4:26You want a military that's still just very steady going along,
- 4:31minding its own business no matter what else is going on, no
- 4:35matter who's in government at the time.
- 4:36And military is always the same. Military just keeps doing what
- 4:40it's doing, no matter who's in government, no matter what silly
- 4:45little ideas are out there in in society.
- 4:48Military doesn't change if if our our military and and the
- 4:57police ranks, they've had a lot of issues with with with their
- 5:02recruitment in the last couple of years and so they've decided
- 5:07both areas have decided well hey we want to be more inclusive.
- 5:11We want to bring all these other people in who mightn't feel,
- 5:14maybe in the past they mightn't have felt.
- 5:17Included in our workforces. So we want to be able to bring
- 5:21these, these people in. The problem I say is, is this
- 5:26the kind of person that you want to bring into your military?
- 5:30Do we really need someone who is that who is that fragile, that
- 5:36sensitive that they're actually considering that they're
- 5:40actually concerned whether something is has the term the
- 5:44the word man? In its title, when when we're
- 5:49talking about aircraft that don't have a crew, drones, we
- 5:54have to call them uncrewed and not unmanned.
- 5:57I I tell you, when I was, when I was in the place, especially
- 6:00when I was in general duties, there was some people you'd be
- 6:03going to a job and you knew it was maybe going to be a little
- 6:07violence or that were if I'd had experiences with these people
- 6:11before. You thought you sit there going
- 6:12there are some people you want. Sitting in the car next to you,
- 6:16or at least knowing that they're in the next car and they're on
- 6:19their way because you're sitting there going, OK, I can rely on
- 6:22these people to have my back. Things are going to go down.
- 6:26You know, I'm not a I'm not, I'm not a big guy.
- 6:30I'm not a small guy, just average.
- 6:32I always try to keep fit. You always, you know, you always
- 6:35want to keep on top of things and think, well, if things go
- 6:38down, at least I'll be able to handle myself, protect myself,
- 6:41and I want the guy next to me or the person next to me.
- 6:44Being able to protect themselves and maybe help me if I get in
- 6:47trouble and not and vice versa. The trouble is sometimes they'll
- 6:50be sitting next to people and thinking, man, I wish someone
- 6:54else is here because and and it wasn't always a like, it wasn't
- 6:59just because like if they don't think I'm thinking of females
- 7:02only, it's not females, it's the person itself.
- 7:06Because sometimes you'd be sitting there going, I'd prefer
- 7:10a female, a certain female there, because I know.
- 7:14How they can handle themselves and what they're like.
- 7:16You don't want someone who's sitting there and they are.
- 7:21If they. I would not want someone who is
- 7:24so consumed with language and with terminology that that is at
- 7:31the forefront of their mind and they can't concentrate on the
- 7:36task at hand, especially when with you.
- 7:42Especially when violence erupts when you end up in a hard
- 7:45situation, you want someone that gets in there and gets their
- 7:47hands dirty, not worried about what's the terminology that
- 7:51you're using, what's the language that you're using.
- 7:54I guarantee you, the Chinese and the Russians, they're not
- 7:59sitting there talking about gender neutral language.
- 8:04What are they talking about? What are they thinking about?
- 8:06They're thinking about how to how to make their weapons
- 8:10better, bigger. Faster How to How to train their
- 8:15their personnel to become the best soldiers, the best military
- 8:19people that anyone will ever find.
- 8:22That's what they're concerned about.
- 8:23They're not concerned or whether people feel included in the
- 8:28language, regardless of whether you're male, female, or you
- 8:31identify as some other illusion, imaginary illusion.
- 8:36That's not what they're thinking about.
- 8:38They want to be the best and the biggest and the strongest and
- 8:41the smartest. And at the moment they look at
- 8:43Western society, they look at militaries like Australia's.
- 8:46And you know, we're thinking about, Oh well, someone, someone
- 8:49in there is sitting there thinking we want to rename our
- 8:54drones to uncrewed instead of saying unmanned because we want
- 8:59to be inclusive if this is the kind of personnel that you are
- 9:03looking to bring in. To the military?
- 9:06Well then no wonder why you're having problems.
- 9:10No wonder why police are having problems because they are not
- 9:14the kind of personnel that will have the back of the soldier or
- 9:19the police officer next to them. They won't.
- 9:22They are too worried about. They're too worried about
- 9:29hurting people's feelings. And don't get me wrong, I think
- 9:32we need to be polite. We need to be polite.
- 9:35We need to be. You need to be able to get along
- 9:39with people. You need to be able to, you
- 9:42know, you know you don't want to.
- 9:43I don't want to go out of my way to insult, to insult people.
- 9:47And I believe it's it's actually pretty arrogant of us, not, you
- 9:52know, of Western culture in general, but it's pretty
- 9:55arrogant of their defense, our defense force.
- 9:58To think that, well, this is the most concerning, the most
- 10:02concerning thing we have at the moment is inclusivity in our
- 10:06language, not do we have the most well trained military
- 10:13officers, military personnel that we can possibly find in
- 10:16this nation? Do we have the best?
- 10:21And it's arrogant of us, it's arrogant of our military to
- 10:24think that this doesn't really matter.
- 10:28But, you know, have some having someone who was so fragile, so
- 10:32mentally fragile, that they'll become unhinged because because
- 10:37their drones are referred to as unmanned aircraft, well, we're
- 10:43just on the wrong path, aren't we?
- 10:45Anyway, that's just my opinion. Let me know what you think I've
- 10:48said before. You know, I don't particularly
- 10:50like carrying on too much about the the gender, the gender thing
- 10:54that the transgender thing, because I think it's.
- 10:57In a way, it is kind of punching down because you got these
- 10:59people who I think they've got mental issues and they need
- 11:03mental help. But when you have people out
- 11:05there like the military, when you have people who are
- 11:08supposedly setting the standards for our society and they come up
- 11:13with these crazy ideas like this, that's just it's
- 11:17bombastic. It's ridiculous.
- 11:23Anyway, you let me know what you think.
- 11:27Jade Fallon, thanks for listening to the slippery slope.
- 11:31They just fuel the