Princeton Bans Gendered Words To 'Reflect Inclusive Culture'

Alissa Lopez | August 19, 2016
DONATE
Font Size

 

Princeton University has implemented a new policy requiring its Human Resources department to use “gender inclusive language” in “HR communications, policies, job descriptions and postings.”

Reported by The College Fix, the four-page long document is especially detailed, providing examples as to how to replace the "gender binary" pronouns with ones that are non-binary.

For example, when replacing he, him, his, and she, her and hers, the policy recommends doing one of four things:

  1. Replace gendered pronouns…. By writing the text in the plural.

  2. Eliminate the pronoun altogether.

  3. Repeat the noun.

  4. Use the second person voice, i.e., address your reader directly, using 'you' and 'your.'

The university goes even further, requiring that “gender-neutral occupational titles and gender-neutral generic terms” be used instead of those that include words such as ‘man.’

Do you know how many terms include the word "man?" Let alone how many expressions we use that are ‘"gender specific"? But no worries -- the policy document does all (or most) of the work for their HR staff. It provides two separate tables with occupational phrases and common expressions that the staff can’t use, and what to gender inclusive phrase to replace it with.

The staff is told to not use the term “businesswoman/man” but instead use “businessperson, people in business.” Instead of “forefathers," use the word “ancestors.” They can’t use the phrase “best man for the job” anymore, and instead must use “best person for the job.”

The policy also scraps “man and wife," replacing it with “spouses” or “partners.”

There are a little more than 30 words on this list, and it may make your head spin a bit.

Some people already use some of these gender-neutral words and sayings, so that’s not the absurd part. It’s the fact that the HR staff’s choice of vocabulary is being sanitized for the sake of political correctness. They can’t even have a conversation with another person and use the word “alumna” or the phrase "managers and their wives." 

God forbid a college student is offended. After all, it's not like that can happen in the real world or anything, since safe spaces totally exist.

John Cramer, the university’s director of media relations, told The College Fix that these guidelines “reflect the university’s initiative of fostering an inclusive environment.”

No, this reflects the university’s willingness to limit First Amendment rights for the sake of someone’s feelings.

donate