Mother or egg donor? Researchers campaign for ‘inclusive terminology’ in science
Julia Johnson
Video Embed
Mother, father, man, and woman are just a few “harmful terms” that shouldn’t be used in the fields of ecology and evolutionary biology, according to the scientists who are leading an initiative for “inclusive terminology.”
The Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Language Project is working to scrub “harmful” language from science.
Earlier this month, several Ph.D.-wielding assistant professors, post-doctoral fellows, and Ph.D. students launched the initiative, citing the need for inclusion in the scientific field.
“The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and waves of anti-Black violence have highlighted the need for leaders in EEB to adopt inclusive and equitable practices in research, collaboration, teaching, and mentoring,” they wrote in the scientific journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution.
WATCH: WHOOPI GOLDBERG WONDERS WHY THERE IS ‘BANNING OF TRANS PEOPLE’ BUT NOT GUNS
https://twitter.com/EEBLanguageProj/status/1622646434431664128?s=20
The group of scientists further claims that “much of Western science is rooted in colonialism, white supremacy, and patriarchy, and these power structures continue to permeate our scientific culture.”
The researchers involved span institutions across the United States and Canada.
The University of British Columbia published an article highlighting the initiative because three of its researchers are involved.
“We reached out to different networks in ecology and evolution that were focused on increasing inclusion and equity in the field to rally support for one very specific action — revising terminology that might be harmful to certain people, particularly those from groups historically and currently excluded from science,” Kaitlyn Gaynor told the university of the project.
On its website, the EEB Language Project has compiled a list of “Top 24 Harmful Terms.” It also provides reasonings and proposed replacement words.
Some of the featured words include mother, father, man, woman, male, female, alien, non-native, exotic, invasive, feminized, masculinized, survival of the fittest, gender, primitive, advanced, race, virgin, colonization, colonizer, discover, discovery, and master.
It also advises against using terms that include “names after racist / eugenic / colonizers.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
According to the researchers, male and female “are used to reinforce societally-imposed ideas of a sex binary, emphasising cis-normative and hetero-normative views,” and thus, should be replaced by “sperm-producing/egg-producing or XY/XX individual.”
Further, mother and father should be scrapped for “parent/egg-donor/sperm-donor” because they “perpetuate a non-universal heteronormative and cisnormative view of the parenting and birthing process.”