Good, Bad, and Ugly
Reader reaction to Reuters news
A legitimate term to use?
Email 
Print
Crowds cheer Monaco’s Prince Albert and new bride
Caroline and Stephanie have had a series of high-profile and disastrous marriages. Albert himself has been linked with a succession of models and actresses, and has admitted to fathering two illegitimate children.
I am surprised and disappointed to find that your reporter used the phrase “illegitimate children” in reference to Prince Albert’s two children.
What a cruel and outdated phrase that is. Children are not illegitimate. In this day and age when children are born in or out of wedlock, and families take a myriad of different forms, the phrase “illegitimate children” is not only callous, it is also uninformed.
Please update your language in future and find a way to refer to the parents’ marital status without condemning children for something over which they have no control.
Lizzie
That isn’t an especially enlightened word, and I’m aware that some people find it offensive.
However, the number one definition for illegitimate on dictionary.com is “born of parents who are not married to each other; born out of wedlock: an illegitimate child,” so I suspect it’s going to be with us for a while. GBU Editor
Monaco’s Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene hold hands during their religious wedding ceremony at the Palace in Monaco July 2, 2011. REUTERS/Palais Princier/Gaeten Luci/Handout
Comments RSSPost Your Comment
-
Author Profile
-
Maybe “bastard” would be better?
Nah, probably not.
Just think of what would have happened if Reuters had used the Synonymous term that starts with a “B” (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ illegitimate+child?qsrc=2446) then Lizzie really would be in a tizzy.