Michigan State University has released the most recent edition of its university style guide for inclusive language and I must say, it's very educational.
The guide is broken up into four categories: "Gender and Sexuality," "Race and Ethnicity," "Global Identity," and "Disability."
The very first term to avoid is one that is pretty hard to avoid if you live in the real world, but nevertheless, the style guide advises writers to,
Avoid the term "female" as a noun for women. The pejorative term reduces women to their assumed biological anatomy.
Saying "female" is not "pejorative" because it's grounded in reality. Got it.
But saying "The future is woman" doesn't have a nice ring to it, so if you're a feminist, carry on!
Another term to avoid is the word "queer," which is deemed derogative, unless of course, someone refers to themselves that way, in which case it's an example of empowering self-identification.
The guide also advises against using the abbreviations "BIPOC," "POC," and "QTBIPOC," which ironically are things that only the wokest of the woke have ever said.
The university also warns against using the word overweight telling students to,
Be aware that the terms "obese," "obesity" and "overweight" are pathologizing stigmas in the size-diversity community.
"Size-diverse community."
This is what your tax dollars go towards.
Do not use these when describing individuals outside of communicating about research. Use "higher weight" or "larger-bodied" if necessary...
Or here's another suggested term for you:
The Daily Wire reported that an earlier edition of the style guide,
"warned communications staff against using "majority religious imagery and language," especially during the winter and spring seasons. Those problematic words, according to the university, include: "merry," "Christmas trees," "wreaths," "holly," "bells," "gifts," "reindeer," "bunnies," "eggs" and "chicks."
And with those recommendations in mind, I'd like to leave you all with wishes for a wonderful Easter weekend!
Just go easy on the Easter candy or you might accidentally move into the "larger-bodied" category.
