Grants:IdeaLab/Watch your mouth

Inspire campaign

Watch your mouth

Avoiding the use of discriminatory language is critical to creating a discrimination-free, and thus harrassment-free, Wikipedia. thatwritingchick48gmail.com

idea creator• Thatwritingchick48

volunteer• thatwritingchick48

created on14:55, Saturday, June 25, 2016 (UTC)

Project idea

What is the problem you're trying to solve?

On June 25, 2016, in the list of historical events of the day, I read that the Mann Act had been created to "prevent the transportation of females across state lines for immoral purposes." A female human being is known as a woman or girl; the use of "female" here is quite literally dehumanizing. While this usage may indeed be part of language of the original Mann Act, it was not enclosed in quotes. That makes it seem as if it's okay to refer to women as "females."

What is your solution?

It's long been known that if a group of persons is referred to derogatorily, bad treatment of them becomes easier both to commit and to condone. Wikipedia has earned my respect by being assiduous about this in most of its pages regarding racism, but apparently the odd sexist reference still slips through. And as most of the harassment alleged to take place in connection with the site is sexual in nature, minding the language will both reduce the amount of non-mindful sexism on Wikipedia, and frustrate those who commit it mindfully.

Project goals

If it does nothing else, having one's article edited for this kind of reference might make someone realize that his baby daughter will one day have to deal with this sh*t.

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Endorsements

Support--NadirAli (talk)

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Can't really see how that would be necessary. I'm sure you have some words flagged as always inappropriate; adding "female" to the list is going to really annoy physical scientists. It will require that someone who is proven not to be insensitive to sexist language to edit new articles strictly for these archaic usages, and ensure that they are not used casually or without explanation.