Watch Your Mouth! How to Fix Your Harmful Language

 

SAN ANGELO, TX – Have you had a hard time finding out if you're offensive or not? Well thanks to the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Language Project you can now find ways to fix your lingo.

"Amid a growing disciplinary commitment to inclusion in ecology and evolutionary biology (EEB), it is critical to consider how the use of scientific language can harm members of our research community, sates the project's website. "To unite those of us working to revise harmful terminology in EEB, we introduce our grassroots, collective initiative called The EEB Language Project.”

The following are the Top 24 most harmful terms and replacements according to the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Language Project:

Harmful Term Context Replacement Term
alien / non-native / exotic / invasive Xenophobic, anti-immigrant, and militaristic Non-endemic species / Newly arrived species / Non-Indigenous species / Introduced species / Nuisance species
blind / double blind / plant blindess Disability metaphor Awareness
citizen science “Citizen science” is harmful to non-citizens who are excluded by that language Participant science / Community science /
feminized / masculinized Feminized implies that "feminine" and "masculine" are biological traits rather than social constructs Describe the specific traits
gypsy Racial slur used to incite violence against Romani people "Spongy moth"
man / woman Highly anthropomorphic / Biases towards men or male traits Male or female / Human
names after racist / eugenic / colonizers They hold up problematic figures as noteworthy/someone to remember or celebrate Use Indigenous names / Use local names / Name based on appearance or morphology / Remove names from concepts
survival of the fittest Eugenics, ablelism, and social Darwinism Natural selection / Survival differences
Gender Gender, a social construct, is often conflated with sex Sex
Hermaphrodite Derogatory term used to cause harm to the intersex and trans individuals. Monoecious/intersex/bi-gametic
Indian A discrominatory, racist, term used to describe indigenous people Indigenous
Male/female These terms are used to reinforce societally-imposed ideas of a sex binary, emphasising cis-normative and hetero-normative views Sperm-producing/egg-producing or XY/XX individual
Mother/father These terms perpetuate a non-universal heteronormative and cisnormative view of the parenting and birthing process. Parent/egg-donor/sperm-donor
Noose Term associated with anti-Black violence and lynching Lasso
Primitive/advanced Used derogatorily towards humans or human practices, and also scientifically inaccurate as implies an evolutionary hierarchy Ancestral/derived
race Perpetuates the idea that human race is a biological rather than social construct when used to describe non-human subspecies Population/subspecies/ecotype
virgin A social construct that reinforces heteropatriarchal norms Unmated
colonization / colonizer Terms are harmful and triggering for Indigenous people that have been subjugated to colonialism, racism, and genocide and use of the term describes normalizes it as natural phenomonen rather than a destructive one with human context. established / early successional species
discover / discovery Erases the longstanding, detailed ecological knowledge of Indigenous communities that have been involved with local environments and ecosystems before colonialism and western science. identified / described
harem Perpetuates offensive stereotypes of human cultures, particlularly those of the Middle East, and evokes a sexualized human power structure in which women are assumed to be subjucated to men. mating group / polygny
master / master file / master equation / master variable Perpetuates harmful stereotypes and connotations to the enslavement of people of color and normalizes language implicated with slavery and enslaved people. primary / main document / primary equation or variable
Old World / New World Perpetuates a colonial and Eurocentric view of the world that is offensive to the international community and Indigenous peoples that lived in the region and contributed to scientific knowledge before European colonialism. the relevant location
rape Equates rape with a reproductive strategy rather than a violent and traumatic act, which can lead to dangerous misconceptions that is a natural behavior, and the use of the term forces survivors to be confronted with it which is traumatic. forced copulation
slave and/or master / slave-making ants / slavery Normalizes slavery and colonoliasm as a natural phenomonen in the wild, which if harmful to cultures and people of color subjugated to these practices and does not represent the animal behavior accurately.

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CGM5, Wed, 02/15/2023 - 16:25

WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP! ... I mean slightly too much excreted rubbish!

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