Britain’s woke University of Bristol has banned a raft of supposedly offensive terms, including “gendered” words like “manpower” and “mankind” and age-related nicknames like “millennial” and “baby boomer”.
The offending “gendered” words, to be replaced with bland, politically correct alternatives like “workforce” and “humankind” — the Justin Trudeau-approved “peoplekind” appears to have been a bridge too far — are being cautioned against because the university believes they can cause offence and contribute to stigmas, according to GB News.
There is also concern with so-called “ableist” language, with the term “able-bodied” to be substituted for “non-disabled”, for example.
The University of Nottingham, like Bristol a member of the Russel Group of allegedly “world-class” institutions, goes even further recommending against referring to a “blind spot” or the timeless expression “the request fell on deaf ears”.
“The idea that in a university people need to be dictated to in this way is really insulting to students and academics, we should be able to cope with words,” said Dr Joanna Williams of the University of Kent in comments quoted by BirminghamLive, which described her as an academic freedom advocate.
“These words have evolved over a long period of time and they don’t have sexist associations,” she insisted.
“Free speech really is at risk because of these ridiculous ideas,” added Nigel Mills, an MP for the Conservative Party, in comments quoted by The Sun.
Woke language edicts are present not just in universities but in venerable national institutions which might be expected to be intrinsically conservative, however.
The MI5, MI6, and GCHQ intelligence and security agencies, for example, have issued guidance not just warning against “gender-neutral language” but urging people not to use words and phrases “that reinforce the dominant cultural patterns”, citing “strong” or “grip”, as cases in point.
Similarly, the Royal Navy has issued language guidance every bit as woke as that of Bristol and Nottingham universities, banning terms like “manpower” and “unmanned” on grounds that such terms are “problematic or no longer appropriate” in the modern age.
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