Reader Feedback

I received an email today from Pat, who sat down to read my Mental Readiness post.

 

Wow - Christopher - from the photograph on your 'Mental Readiness' article - you appear to be a young man, not someone from the 1960's. I'm surprised you would use such a term as "firemen" or "fireman". 

We are not "police-men" or "fire-men" or "fisher-men" any more. You may not have a woman in the fire service - but there are women in the fire service. 

I didn't even bother reading the rest of the article for fear of other stereotypes.

Sincerely,

Pat

 

 

I really took some time to think about Pat's email. Pat's concern is a valid one. People use words everyday with out really thinking about how they may be understood by others. While I may mean a word to be taken in a certain context, a reader might not perceive it that way. One of the challenges I face as a writer is that I write the way I speak, but if you come in to the middle of my conversation you may be offended by something I say. Below is my reply to Pat's email.

 

Pat,

Thanks for the feedback. In an earlier post, which was also published by Fire Engineering, I wrote:

It is my view of what each and every one of us who call ourselves a fireman should aspire to. I am going to use the word fireman here rather than the more gender neutral firefighter. You the reader need to be able to distinguish a particular meaning in what I'm saying. For my purposes a firefighter is someone who has a job working for the fire department, but may not have a love for the job that inspires them to be the best. We all have met people who are just in this job for the badge, the pension, or the time off. A fireman on the other hand is anyone, male or female, who has chosen to embrace the ideals of the Fire Service Warrior.

I realize that the word "fireman" has gender implications. Several women I know in the fire service are honored to use the term fireman to apply to themselves, and do so regularly. I debated painting a picture using "firefighter" and "employee of the fire department" instead of "fireman" and "firefighter." I felt that is was clumsy writing though, and did not flow as well. You are the first person who has raised this as a problem with me, and I hope you believe me when I say I am going to spend some time thinking about this. The difficulty as a writer is trying to find a happy balance between interesting narrative and communicating with the widest spectrum of readers.

I hope that my elaboration will assuage your concerns about stereotypes and that you will give the information a read and tell me what you think about the information presented. Thank you for emailing me. A lot of people would have just blackballed the info and ignored it, but never given the author a chance to learn from your thoughts. Be safe.

Chris

 

I was honored that Pat took the time to write. I am not all knowing, and I love to learn from the people who take the time to read this blog. Don't hesitate to email me. Pat, thanks again for writing.