Language, Respect and Humanity

Words Matter

Half a century ago, the women’s movement taught us that words can express respect or disrespect and that it was important to use words that expressed respect. Women insisted that they should be referred to as “women,” and not as “girls,” or “chicks.” Moreover, women showed us that the use of disrespectful and degrading language not only signals disrespect, it leads to disrespect. Using words like “girls” to refer to grown women leads us to think of them as childlike, although in truth, they are not. A word like “lady” may also be problematic because it situates a woman in a hierarchical relationship with men. A woman is a “lady” in relation to a “gentleman” who does things like opening doors for her because she is weak and needs protection.

Women also taught us to avoid the “generic masculine” pronouns in speech and writing because the idea that women in a group should be subsumed under masculine pronouns was degrading to women. Our use of language has changed because of what we have learned from women, and our actual treatment of women is slowly catching up with our linguistic usage.

Men Can Also Be Degraded

The lesson that we have learned from women may be applied in other areas where degrading language is still used. One of those is the use of “male” in place of “man” or “boy.” This usage grew out of American racism. Not long ago, black men were routinely addressed and referred to as “boys” in ordinary conversation and in official settings like police reports. Black people objected to this usage, but the police were reluctant to call black men “men” and in addition, they didn’t know what to do when they arrested or pursued a young black person who was indeed a boy and not a man. At what age did it become obligatory to call a black person a “man?” They solved the problem by replacing both “man” and “boy” with the term “male,” and once they started using “male,” they broadened its usage to include white men and boys as well. The use of “male” gradually spread from police reports to other official settings, and from there it passed into popular usage.

This is unfortunate because this use of “male” is dehumanizing. A man is person, a member of society. A man has rights and obligations. A man is worthy of respect or condemnation. A boy is a human child. He has a right to be protected and cared for. Men and boys stand in relationships to their parents, their siblings, their friends, their employers and their fellow citizens. And of course, they stand in relationships to women, who are entitled to demand respect and equal treatment from men.

In contrast, a male is simply a masculine member of a certain species. We speak of male animals, but we don’t ordinarily speak of “male humans.” A male has neither rights nor obligations. A male is not a person.

Let us Not Use Degrading Language

You might object and say, “Don’t be absurd. A man does not lose his status as a human being merely because we call him a ‘male,’” but we learned from women that the way we talk about people matters. Women rightly insisted that getting rid of the generic masculine mattered. They rightly demanded not to be called “girls.” They taught us that respectful and equal treatment required the use of respectful and egalitarian language.  Calling men and boys “males” robs them of their humanity. Let us not do that. Let us use language in respectful ways for all members of our society.