Trash Talk And Germanwings

German feminist linguist attacked for innocent Germanwings article. She is in the center of a "shitstorm" because of masculine forms of plural nouns.

Feminist attacked for Germanwings comment

Luise Pusch is a German feminist linguist who is in the middle of a media "shitstorm" resulting from her article on the Germanwings plane crash. Pusch often comments on social or cultural as well as linguistic issues in her blog Laut und Luise. On Friday she argued that it would be beneficial to have more female pilots, since women are less likely to commit such violent suicide. She further observed that since in German most plural nouns have a masculine form, the crash victims, including a group of 14 female students and 2 male students along with their two female teachers, were all presented as male. On Saturday her commentary was republished online in Emma, the German equivalent of Ms. Magazine. Since that publication Dr. Pusch has been the subject of growing cyber bullying. What is astounding is the tenor of the attacks. She seems to have touched the live wire of German male chauvinism. The attacks are personal, vitriolic, etc. It is astounding to me that an article simply advocating for women in society and language has caused such a firestorm as is now trending in the German Twitter-sphere.

The number of German online news outlets papers featuring the controversy in their online editions continues to grow (over 33 listings under "Luise Pusch" on Google News as of 3/30/15). Among the more objective reports are those of Die Zeit and taz (Die Tageszeitung) (links below). Press outlets in France and Switzerland have also begun reporting on the controversy.The virtually exclusively negative trend began to shift as of 3/29, as other publications supported Pusch's thesis and favorable comments were retweeted. However, the media frenzy continues.

http://www.fembio.org/biographie.php/frau/comments/frauenquote-fuers-cockpit/

Link to English translation of Pusch article