The Words We Use

Paper Summary:

The author of the paper shows that even though most people acknowledge that words can do real harm, many continue to insist that sexist language is a trivial concern. This paper looks at the reasons why it is important to be careful about the language that we use. It is all too easy for opponents of care in language to toss off concerns about bias as "political correctness". But it is important that the rest of us insist that "political correctness" can be viewed another way: As basic courtesy and civility. The paper uses several examples to demonstrate sexist language.

From the Paper:

"The first comes from my high school, where one of the teachers a man ; would always scoff at requests by students that he not used biased language. ;I never feel left out when people talk about men; as meaning all of humanity; he would say. I know that they;re talking about the species as a whole, not just people with Y chromosomes. He was, it should be noted, speaking without any apparent irony. He never seemed to be able to appreciate the fact that while he might not feel left out, women and girls would."

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