Political Correctness strikes again – Master Bedroom is no more!

PC Master Bedroom

I heard rumblings about this a few days before it was taken up by major national newspapers, the phrase ‘master‘ for bedroom may be withdrawn as it may cause offence.

These changes are being driven by political correctness…DailyMail Peter Wetherell, executive chairman of Wetherell in Mayfair

Today’s political climate is very tense even without a ‘leave‘ or ‘remain‘ hint in sight. It seems now a lifetime ago that Brexit led the headlines and then there was much optimism in the air that politics would take a sideline for now following Boris Johnson’s confirmation as Prime Minister that democracy would be respected and we’d be leaving the European Union… Since then we’ve had the global disaster that is Covid-19 to takes its place and a crescendo of heavy rioting behind Black Lives Matter to include demolishing history by way of statues with even Basil Fawlty not escaping the left wing agenda.

The 1975 episode, fondly remembered for the line ‘don’t mention the War’, is the latest in a series of British programmes to be culled from streaming sites.DailyMail John Cleese slams ‘stupid’ UKTV decision to remove Fawlty Towers ‘don’t mention the War’ episode

 

So with Christopher Columbus statues toppling and “Don’t mention the war” comedy scene offending we are obviously likely to see a trend of political correctness continuing which leads us to the master bedroom which many estate agent in previous years would have proudly introduced during their viewing. The main bedroom, as an adjective which the word is now used, the ‘principle’ bedroom, the ‘biggest’, ‘best’ or ‘primary’ ‘leading’ ‘proudest’ or whatever other word we can think of to mean the better bedroom of the house, the room where one can place the biggest bed and side cabinets, dressing table maybe, large wardrobe, chandelier, thick pilled carpets and even a mirrored ceiling… In other words, the ‘master bedroom’.

Simple no? Of course not, it is now offensive as some wish to take the word as being. So how does this effect school Head Masters, BBC Mastermind or Master Chef – Who’s going for a Masters degree currently? How far can we take things… ? I mean, if I twist my mind round enough in the world of property viewings then surely as a garden I would be offended that the Kitchen has a sink – Or what about a bungalow being highly annoyed and causing offence to a flat positioned on the 4th floor? Silly I know, but I am concerned that we are heading towards this kind of folly…

I was only last year searching for property on line to buy  (6 bedroom minimum) and the amount of times that estate agents stated a property to have more bedrooms that were actually present or that a dining room was stated as dining room /6th bedroom – Surely estate agents should focus their attention to these details?

Anyway, some estate agents are in agreement – This is of course fine and I respect that, they are willingly removing the word ‘master’ from their listings, but I am not sure all will go down this road in order to not upset people though?

 

 

Christopher Walkey

Founder of Estate Agent Networking. Internationally invited speaker on how to build online target audiences using Social Media. Writes about UK property prices, housing, politics and affordable homes.

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