TO THE EDITOR:
I applaud the recent conversations regarding the preservation of misogynistic culture through words like “freshman” and “businessman.” One word has been underrepresented in the conversation: “manhole.”
Manholes are covered openings that give access to the public sewage systems under the streets. Despite their ubiquitous presence in everyone’s daily lives, “man” is still part of their name, and this misnomer encourages the sexist culture we see in the rest of our lives.
If you do not believe sexist language promulgates homogeneous and sexist culture in this case, consider the following: the word “manhole” only holds relevance to men. What young girl dreams of being a sewage pipe cleaner when she does not feel comfortable crawling into a manhole?
Unless we change something, our sewage system will suffer, and we will all feel the trickle-down effect. After all, UNC’s Bingham Research Facility has leaked sewage in the past year.
I am not sure whether adding the word “ladyhole” or simply adopting the title “personhole” would be more beneficial, but we should act soon. In these troubled times, we should encourage as many women and men as possible to enter and clean our manholes and ladyholes. I truly believe this will make our lives, our culture and our environment better.
By promoting a more gender-neutral sewage workforce, we will more readily focus on moving the subterranean crap around, rather than getting rid of it entirely.
Patrick Heenan
Sophomore
