No more “man” in Princeton
University in New Jersey, USA bans Gender-based language and ignites social media
Image: Princeton University Building
Gender and gender-neutral language has gotten more and more in the focus of discussions in the past years. There are many voices for the pro and the contra of a language reform to a more including gender-neutral language rather than the commonly used androcentric language that is centered on masculine terms.
In this article we will be focusing on the private Ivy League University of Princeton in the State New Jersey, USA and their recent decision to establish a Gender-neutral language throughout their staff and in all official school documents.
In August 2016 the Human Resources and Office of Communications of Princeton University issued a memorandum with guidelines and tips on how to utilize gender inclusive language. They furthermore instructed their entire staff (which holds over 2000 employees) to use gender-neutral language and reworked all official school documents to now feature a gender-neutral language.
The memorandum published by the Princeton University describes gender-neutral language as writing and speaking about people in a manner that does not use gender-based words when the gender is unknown or applies to a mixed group of individuals.
Gender-neutral language has a lot of different aspects to be considered, to get a better grasp on how exactly gender-neutral language works you can find a great, detailed explanation here.
Princeton's decision to establish gender-neutral language has been confronted with very mixed feelings by both students and other official institutions.
In the student lead Editorial of Princeton students stated their opinion that there is no need to reform the language and ban words that are commonly understood as gender-neutral even if they include the word “man” as in “freshman”, “chairman” or “mailman”. They furthermore pointed out that the instance of students that feel offended by commonly-used and accepted language would not be an appropriate indicator of an inclusive campus as individuals could always find cause for offense. In addition they stated that censoring the English language through a dissemination of lists of acceptable vocabulary would go against the University values and could be seen as a first sinister step towards restriction of language and speech.
Not every student agrees with the statements above as the dissent of the editorial shows. In the dissent students write that gender-exclusive language only hardens the widespread gender biases and norms. They furthermore write that casting leadership and career opportunities in gender-exclusive language could inflict a discouraging effect on women who might already struggle with the phenomenon known as the confidence gap; accordingly people who perceive themselves as less qualified than their gender (in this case male) counterparts pursuing similar opportunities.
They also state their belief that inclusivity is a necessary condition for the free and open exchange of ideas and is achieved by using gender-neutral language rather than gender-exclusive language which has the real effect of excluding and silencing women.
Princeton’s director of media relations, John Cramer, said in a statement to The College Fix that the guidelines “reflect the university’s initiative of fostering an inclusive environment.” In addition he clarified that Princeton’s policy is advised to all students but students are not mandated to follow this policy.
The radio station New Jersey 101.5 published an article about Princeton's recent changes that clearly shows that they do not support the decision about the language reform. New Jersey 101.5 producer Joe Votruba stated that “the university’s attempt at more gender-inclusive language policy goes to a length most people would balk at.” He continued by saying that “While it makes more sense to use ‘their’ in place of ‘him/her’ in many instances, the extremes that Princeton is taking this to is concerning.”
The article included a poll from their Twitter account which showed that 92% of the 154 votes said that Princeton’s new policy change was a “Horrible idea”.
However Princeton is by far not alone with their open mind to gender-neutral language even if they might have advanced further than most of their fellow Universities. Other Institutions across the continent are slowly doing more and more steps towards gender-inclusive language such as the University of Regina, Canada, and the University of Alberta, Canada, by reworking their undergraduate application sheet to now feature “I prefer not to identify” and “I prefer to identify as ___” in addition to the two commonly used “female” and “male”. As well as the University of Missouri, USA, who recently started renaming their unisex bathrooms after complaints that the term wasn’t inclusive as reported by The Signal. The Inside Higher Ed reported that the University of Tennessee, USA, last year published a guide on their website on how to use pronouns that many transgender people prefer. They however removed the guide again after a massive national backlash by people who misunderstood the guide as an official ban on traditionally used pronouns such as “he” and “she”.
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