A Salmond storm over a pronoun teacup

Here we go again, down the long road that observation is really discrimination. I observe that a person's skin is either black or white and that makes me racist. I observe a person's gender is either male or female and that makes me - well, genderist I guess.

And so it goes on.

If I observe a tree is a tree, does that make me a hater of trees? If I recognise a seagull, does that mean I hate them?

Alex Salmond, a bit flustered in the heat of a debate in the House of Commons, told off Anna Soubry for goading him, claiming she was acting like "some demented junior minister" before finally telling her "Behave yourself, woman!"

Of course, Anna Soubry then took to Twitter to complain

Alex Salmond seems to think women should be seen not heard His attitude belongs firmly in the 19th century

No, Anna. Alex Salmond just thinks you were making a fool of yourself and told you so. It is no different from saying "Get a grip, man!" Would anyone see that phrase as sexist? I doubt it.

Observation is not discrimination.

Adding a gender tag to the end of a sentence is not sexist but merely another way of using pronouns to add to the richness of language. Speech becomes very boring if you keep saying Anna Soubry all the time you want to refer to Anna Soubry. A pronoun like she or her livens things up. But so too does using terms like Minister and woman. A gender tag is nothing more than a pronoun to enrich language; it is not discrimination.

Does Anna Soubry remember when the SNP were told off by the Speaker of the House of Commons for clapping? I didn't see her take to Twitter and complain the Speaker was being racist. Now she gets called up for her misbehaviour and suddenly she's been wronged.

Sexism is real and Anna Soubry would be better reserving use of the term for when it actually happens: there's nothing quite like crying wolf to destroy a just cause.

Click image above to be taken to book's Amazon page