Although Colorado State University has retracted its claim that the word “America” is offensive, it still argues that innocuous terms like “male” and “female” should be avoided.
According to a report by the Daily Mail, Colorado State University is pushing forward in its quest to police the language of its students. The final version of the university’s “Inclusive Language Guide” urges students to avoid terms like “male” and “female.”
Earlier this month Breitbart News reported that an early draft of Colorado State University’s “Inclusive Language Guide” urged the community to avoid using the terms “America” and “Americans.” The authors behind the guide argued that these terms are offensive because they fail to recognize all North Americans.
After widespread criticism, Colorado State University quickly announced that this portion of the guide had been removed prior to its official publication. However, the guide still contains attempts to police non-offensive terms such as “male” and “female.”
“Male and female refers to biological sex and not gender,” the guide reads. “In terms of communication methods (articles, social media, etc.), we very rarely need to identify or know a person’s biological sex and more often are referring to gender. In these cases, using gender identity terms is preferred.”
The “Inclusive Language Guide” goes even further in censoring speech, asking students to avoid the term “peanut gallery.”
“This phrase intends to reference hecklers or critics, usually ill-informed ones. In reality, the “peanut gallery” names a section in theaters, usually the cheapest and worst, where many Black people sat during the era of Vaudeville,” the guide reads.
Breitbart News has written extensively about the rise of the language police on campuses around the world. In June 2018, Breitbart News reported that students at Hull University in Hull, England, were told that they would lose points on their assignment if they used gendered terms such as “manpower” and “man-made.”
“Be aware of the powerful and symbolic nature of language and use gender-sensitive formulations. Failure to use gender-sensitive language will impact your mark,” one Hull University professor said.