UPDATE NEWSPEAK DICTIONARIES ACCORDINGLY, COMRADES: The largest pilot’s union has its eyes on the important problems facing aviation.
No, not airplanes dropping out of the skies or pilots being hired based on (checks notes) melanin count and sex organs.
The Air Line Pilots Association doesn’t rock with minor concerns like that.
The world’s largest airline pilot union, Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l (ALPA), has urged the aviation community to stop using terms considered offensive to women and LGBTQ individuals, such as “cockpit.”Representing over 70,000 pilots globally, ALPA collaborates with a United Nations agency on its policies. Their 2021 diversity, equity, and inclusion language guide lists several terms and phrases to avoid, particularly “masculine generalizations,” to promote inclusion and equity.
The guide emphasizes that “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 suggests replacing “cockpit” with “flight deck,” citing that the former term has been used derogatorily to exclude women. It also advises against using terms like “manpower,” recommending “people/human power” instead, and discourages addressing groups as “guys” due to its non-inclusive nature.
ALPA also recommends avoiding “mother/father” and “husband/wife” to respect diverse family structures and same-sex couples.
Related: America’s Newspaper of Record checks in with Boeing: Our Number 1 Priority Is Diversity (Video).