JAMIE FORSSTREOM IS EXCITED. TOMORROW THEY MAKE THEIR debut flight with Virgin Atlantic as part of the cabin crew on a plane to San Francisco. Forsstreom will be wearing a burgundy trouser suit designed by Vivienne Westwood, with their pronouns - "They/ them" -on a lapel badge. Forsstreom comes from Finland, a country where gendered pronouns don't exist in the language. "I've learned English since I was nine years old, so I've always known about them, but in terms of using them to define my own gender identity, I was quite late to the game," they say. It wasn't until Forsstreom moved to London six years ago in their mid-20s, and started to work exclusively in English, that they decided to make the change and honour a nonbinary identity that they have been clear about since early childhood.
In September, Virgin Atlantic became the latest company to throw itself into a quiet revolution sweeping through the institutional world. The airline's announcement that it would be possible for staff and customers to travel under the gender of their choice caused little media furore but a big run on its elegant pronoun badges. Within a month, the 10,000 printed out for distribution on planes and in its travel shops had been snapped up. A second batch is currently on order.
It was all different from the fuss that erupted last year when Marks & Spencer, that bastion of no-nonsense British values, announced that it was giving staff the option of adding personal pronouns to their name badges. A couple of months later the story rolled on to the British Library, with reports that the library ignored internal warnings that a similar initiative could make it seem too "woke". In the event, more than 100 British Library staff took up the option of pronoun badges.
Denne historien er fra December 02, 2022-utgaven av The Guardian Weekly.
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Denne historien er fra December 02, 2022-utgaven av The Guardian Weekly.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Starlink's conquest of the Amazon leaves Brazil in a dilemma
The helicopter swooped into one of the most inaccessible corners of the Amazon rainforest. Brazilian special forces commandos leaped from it into the caiman-inhabited waters below.
Dalai Lama's mountain town feels the strain of tourist boom
SUVs and saloon cars pass slowly along McLeod Ganj's narrow one-way Jogiwara Road, blaring horns at pedestrians and scooter riders and playing loud music.
'I am all the world' The brutal rule of a West Bank settler
Palestinians tell ofblacklisted Yakov's reign across the Jabal Salman valley and heisjust one of many violent bosses
Stormy waters New flashpoint emerges in South China Sea dispute
Hopes that tensions in the South China Sea might ease have been short lived.
'Justice delayed' Why trust in public inquiries to bring closure is fading
After the final report of the Grenfell fire inquiry was published, Hisam Choucair, who lost six family members in the blaze, said: \"We did not ask for this inquiry... It's delayed the justice my family deserves.\"
Celeriac soup with almond pangrattato
I'm not ashamed to say that as soon as September hits, my stick blender comes out. Just as I embrace salads when the clocks go forward in the UK, I wholeheartedly throw myself into soup season once the summer holidays end. Autumn is approaching in the northern hemisphere and I'm ready with my ladle. Celeriac is one of my favourite soup heroes, because it gives the creamiest, silkiest finish with little effort. You don't have to make the almond pangrattato, but it is a wonderful addition.
Are smoke signals telling me to make an oil change in the kitchen?
Should you that is, not can you) cook with extra-virgin olive oil? Antonio, Atlanta, Georgia, US
Going underground
A darkly humorous encounter between an American spy-cop and the members ofan eco-commune she is hired to infiltrate
All work and no play
Hard Graft, a powerfulnew London exhibition, focuses onworkers’ exploitation, from the ruined hands ofa washerwoman to mothers forced to sell their bodies
What the princess and the shaman tell us about hereditary privilege
It should have been an Instagram-perfect wedding image, but it turned out to be something more embarrassing.
