(Fox News) The world’s largest airline pilot union suggested airmen and women stop using terms purportedly offensive to women and LGBTQ individuals, calling out terms like “cockpit” as non-inclusive.
Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l, represents over 70,000 pilots worldwide and states that it collaborates with a United Nations agency on its policies. According to a diversity, equity and inclusion language guide released in 2021, the ALPA lists numerous terms and phrases to avoid — especially “masculine generalizations” — that it deemed to be non-inclusive.
“Inclusive language in communications is essential to our union’s solidarity and collective strength and is an important factor in maintaining flight safety,” the guide states. “The purpose of this language guide is to offer examples of terms and phrases that promote inclusion and equity.”
ALPA, for example, suggested replacing the word “cockpit” with “flight deck.” The purportedly offensive term “has been and may be used in a derogatory way to exclude women in the piloting profession,” the guide states.
Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l, represents over 70,000 pilots worldwide. (Fox News Digital | Hannah grossman)
“Many women have heard a variation of ‘It is called a cockpit for a reason’ by a male pilot, suggesting that women do not belong in the piloting profession,” the guide said.
But Wall Street Journal columnist and linguist Ben Zimmer wrote that the term “cockpit” originated from cockfighting in 16th century England.
“The circular pit was surrounded by a barrier to keep the gamecocks from escaping, with spectators” who viewed the “bloody sport” as entertainment, he wrote in 2019.
The term evolved to describe a boisterous and tense atmosphere, according to Zimmer. And by the 18th century, it referred to the area on British warships where surgeons treated the wounded.
“The confined space, the noise, the blood and the fetid air evidently reminded people of the original cockpits,” the reporter wrote.
