Prisoner of gender words play a critical role in reinforcing biases
Keeping up with the logic of inclusive language, the Marylebone Cricket Club has officially moved to the gender-neutral ‘batter’ rather than batsman. Many publications have already made the move. Some women cricketers have sportingly let themselves be called batsmen, but the word suggests that women are awkward misfits in a field. Changing the word is so simple, and when it becomes the done thing, then cricket will belong equally to anyone who plays. As is, ‘man of the match’ has given way to ‘player of the match’, and fielders and bowlers have long been gender-neutral terms.What’s all the fuss about, some might ask. Why do familiar words have to be changed when they mean no harm? Because language shapes thought, and for centuries, the male has been the universal form. ‘Chairman’ assumed that authority was naturally a man’s domain. ‘Aam admi’ assumes that the collective experience of women only mattered to the extent it fits within that of ‘the common man’. Occupations are gender-coded when people say ‘lady doctor’ or ‘male nurse’, the implicit message being that a man is a doctor and a woman a nurse.
In fact, many words are already gender-neutral – think of colleague, or guest. Many languages including Hindi use ‘they’ as the personal pronoun. If we want a more equal future, it is important to unlearn these ingrained biases. Changing the world starts with re-describing it.
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