{"id":8246,"date":"2023-01-08T09:56:15","date_gmt":"2023-01-08T09:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=8246"},"modified":"2023-01-08T09:56:15","modified_gmt":"2023-01-08T09:56:15","slug":"the-elimination-of-harmful-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2023\/01\/08\/the-elimination-of-harmful-language\/","title":{"rendered":"The Elimination of Harmful Language"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is good to see that Stanford University is looking out for us. \u00a0The efforts of the University's IT department to further protect its delicate student body from the threats of imagery in language has been made available for all to see. \u00a0The Times<\/a> <\/em>reports that Stanford\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>The Elimination<\/em> of Harmful Language Initiative<\/em>\u00a0followed on from the efforts of other US universities to protect students from words and phrases that might cause offence, do them harm or be injurious to their mental health. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I particularly noted:<\/p>\n

Flogging a dead horse \/ More than one to way to skin a cat<\/b>\u00a0 \u2013 Stanford's IT team says that such expressions normalise violence against animals, and suggest that we use \u201cmultiple ways to accomplish the task\u201d.<\/p>\n

You guys<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Stanford says that this lumps a group of people using masculine language into gender binary groups, which don\u2019t include everyone, so we should use \u201cfolks\u201d, \u201cpeople\u201d or \u201ceveryone\u201d instead.<\/p>\n

Hold [down] the fort<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 it seems that this phrase stems from settlers and soldiers resisting \u201csavages\u201d when \u201con the warpath\" and so we should use \u201ccover the role\u201d.<\/p>\n

Killing it<\/strong> \u2013 this should be avoided because doing a good job should not be equated with death.<\/p>\n

Webmaster<\/strong> \u2013 as, historically, masters enslaved people, this term should be avoided. \u00a0As should webmistress, I guess, but for different reasons.<\/p>\n

Submit in writing<\/strong> \u2013 is problematic as the term can imply allowing others to have power over you.<\/p>\n

and so it goes on ...<\/strong><\/p>\n

And then there are warnings that trigger warnings<\/strong>\u00a0themselves might trigger mental anxiety in those who are warned even before they have seen anything. \u00a0Indeed.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the face of much ridicule, the university has backed off<\/a><\/span>\u00a0 but some at least will have a modicum of sympathy for what the IT team was trying to do, on the basis that we should all think about the words we use \u2013 and think carefully about certain words.<\/p>\n

As for me, I'd have a short list with master cylinder \/ slave cylinder<\/em> being high on the list with\u00a0chairman<\/em>\u00a0rather lower down. \u00a0I'm still bemused by how many women seem happy to be so described.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is good to see that Stanford University is looking out for us. \u00a0The efforts of the University's IT department to further protect its delicate student body from the threats of imagery in language has been made available for all...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8246\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}