This particular flavor of PC alteration has been going on for years now. In 1985, my senior high school religion textbook quoted JFK in this way:
… of every [hu]man are diminished when the rights of one [hu]man are threatened.
It seemed stilted, and dumb, to me. And would they really have ruined the quote if they gasp changed his words to human? But yes, many people believe gender neutrality in schools is very important. Listen, I’m male, so I’m at best, indifferent. And plenty of women I know will say they just don’t care, and fully acknowledge, the historical definition of “man” as synonym for “human”. But even some people who aren’t uber-feminazis will suggest that gender neutrality may be helpful on some sub-conscious level, for a variety of people.
No, it wasn’t. Using the word man to mean human implies that men are the default and women an afterthought or abberation. I’m on board with changing it.
I have no problem the usage of man to mean “mankind”, all humans. But the line would have to be worded “where man has not gone before” to mean that. Saying “Where no man has gone before”, while one may could argue that it could mean mankind, it also means where “no one man” has not gone.
A lot of PC bullshit is bullshit, but that doesn’t mean something is necessarily bullshit if it is PC
“Where Humans, at least Humans of recent history near Earth or Earth stock, not including those picked up eons ago and trained for special covert missions or just dumped on a nice planet in a crowded asteroid belt, have not yet willa having been done going gone went hoopily before to now or a reasonable facsimile of, Bi-atch”
Why the hell not? I used to use “she” all the time for indeterminate gender to avoid the people who freaked out about using “he,” until I found out that “they” has been used in that way since the 17th century.
And the point is that the change is even worse. We are now saying that “we” are the ones who matter, and “they” aren’t. It doesn’t help that TNG mostly went to places that even the Federation had gone to before. It’s as if only the people on the ship count. I go to places I personally have not gone before all the time. Why is that in any way special?
We would not say that “no one” had gone to America before Columbus, (or even Eric the Red). We wouldn’t even say “no one” had discovered it. The entire concept of discover implies you independently found something or figured it out. Do you think then Mayans didn’t “discover” writing because it was already in use in Europe?
I was really happy when they changed it back at the end of Enterprise. If it’s based on a quote, let it be based on a quote. We don’t say, “One small step for a human, one giant leap for humanity,” now do we?
Let’s not forget that TOS had some sexist overtones. With the skimpy uniforms, slapping women to calm them down when they became too hysterical, etc.
ST: TNG came at the ass end of the women’s lib movement. A movement in which they were able to achieve forward progress by leaps and bounds. Saying “Where no one has gone before.” Was a very smart move on their part.
