Growing up, I always had a penchant for words. I was a voracious reader, even though reading did not at all come naturally to me. I struggled through those times when we had to read to ourselves in class, or god forbid read ALOUD to the class. But outside of school, when I had the time to languish around the house, I read constantly. Words for me, held a huge amount of value. I prided myself on adding 10 cent words to my lexicon and using truly obnoxious synonyms in lieu of normal everyday conversational language. I learned early on that words held power, and in wielding them, I felt powerful. As the saying goes, however, with great power, comes great responsibility.
Although I could give endless accounts of words affecting me, and mine affecting others in both positive and negative ways, I will spare you all my detailed life story! I will say though, that in my adult life, I have come to appreciate the responsibility part of wielding words, and am much more intentional in my manner of speaking than those reckless years as a kid.
Living in the world of higher ed, I think that this has become second nature for me. As a higher ed professional, I find that the collective we have a certain way of saying things to be as progressive and inclusive as possible, which comes from a place of working with incredibly diverse populations of students ranging in age, ethnicity, ability, veteran status, race, gender identity, sexual identity, socioeconomic backgrounds, religious affiliation, family status, immigration status, etc., etc. It can be really difficult to always speak neutrally for every occasion, but there are certain words and phrases that have seen widespread changes in recent years. Gone is the era where we refer to students living in dorms, but rather we talk about students being engaged in residence life. We’ve renamed classes like “Freshman Seminar” to “First Year Experience”, and “Remedial Math” to “Developmental Math”. These changes are largely due to negative or exclusive connotations that the old terminology expresses.
Language used in higher ed changes rapidly and is a reflection of our ever-changing demographics as a country and as a field. Author Stephen John Quaye delves into the topic of language with his paper entitled, “Girl or Woman? Dorm or Residence Hall? What’s the Big Deal About Language?: The Power of Language” (Quaye, 2011). In it, he discusses how language is symbolic of a deeper meaning, and how we internalize the language that we hear. One of my favorite points that he makes on this topic is in his discussion of agency,
“Those who control language have the means to set standards for what counts as knowledge and discourse. In teaching students why student affairs educators prefer the term residence hall, student affairs educators can help students understand notions of community and learning they try to foster in the residence hall, rather than merely scolding students for using inappropriate language...When students are able to understand the assumptions that undergird certain words, they are better positioned to use language that promotes agency and equality rather than marginalization and exclusion." (Quaye, 2011, p. 288).
"This notion of cultural agency is critical to student affairs practice in that it represents a form of resistance to the labels inscribed by others on certain people. Merely resisting is not where the agency lies; rather, the agency is found in whether the resister understands why she or he is resisting." (Quaye, 2011, p. 289).
To put this into the context of my own life, I had an interview a few years ago at a college where throughout the day’s conversations, I consistently referred to my significant other as my partner. Weeks later when I was offered the position, one of the comments from my hiring manager was how much that my use of the word partner was appreciated by the student affairs professionals on the committee. Conversely, when I use the word partner outside of the higher ed world, people who do not know me, automatically assume that I am in a same-sex relationship, and people who do know me, and know that I am in a committed relationship with a member of the opposite sex, question my use of the term altogether.
Much like in the example of educating our students to the reason we are switching up dorm for residence hall that Quaye cites, I try to educate my peers outside of higher ed as to why are we turning to non-gender biased terms like partner, and how the connotation of the word partner is promoting agency and equity versus more antiquated and gendered terms like husband/wife. This is not to say that I do not also call my spouse my husband in certain contexts, because I do, but that is a much more personal choice that I make in case by case conversations. He is my partner first, and that is how I choose to present both he and myself more often than not.
I really enjoy is getting into these dialogues about language usage with people who are not involved in the higher ed landscape at all. People in my life have even started to come to me when they are experiencing issues with non-inclusive language, recognizing that higher ed is moving in such a progressive direction on the language front and that although I am not an expert, I do have my finger on the pulse, so to speak. Not too long ago, someone reached out to me as they were rewriting their employee handbook. They noted that some of the language being used was not inclusive and asked for my advice on how they might rework some of the content. One of the examples was that the manual started off stating “from here forward, please let it be known that “he” will be used to refer to all people” – so right from the get go, any employee who does not identify as “he” may automatically feel excluded, or at the very least not directly represented. We worked together to come up with alternative phrasing throughout the manual, and as an added bonus, also took out gendered stereotypes for the section on professional dress code!
Although I do try to stay on top of myself using language that is inclusive, I know that there is still so much that I have to learn. One of the most prevalent groups of words that I feel people have the most difficultly trying to strike from their vernacular (or even understanding why they should) are “crazy” “nuts”, and other terms for things that are outlandish, unbelievable, or unpredictable – be them people, places, situations, etc. Terms like these are so firmly ensconced in our society that if I had a nickel for every time someone said that “the weather is bipolar”, or that they are “totally OCD about” xyz thing, or that “everyone is a little autistic, ya know?”, I’d be rich. Even alternatives that people commonly use like “bananas” still tend to correlate with the historically negative connotation given to persons with mental illness. Language like this only serves to further stigmatize and subjugate an already oppressed population in an ableist society. I tend to use my go-to words like “wild” or “ridiculous”, but I am not immune to slipping up and saying how crazy something is, or gasping and saying, “Ohhhh wow, that is bonkers!”. I do however, feel that I excel at redirecting incorrect word usage that expressly uses diagnosable mental illnesses as fodder for poorly described character quirks.
Again, I am always learning, and by no means am I even nearing perfect. I love staying on top of this particular topic. Language has always been my forte, and in fact, so much that I got my bachelor’s in Linguistics, and took four languages in college. Although I still love learning new languages (shout-out to the Duolingo app!), I tend to focus mostly on English, and seek opportunities for professional development as they relate to the language that we are using with our students.
What is something that you are actively working towards excessing from your vocabulary? Are there any linguistic hot topics on your campus? I’d love to continue this conversation!
Cheers,
Brianna
Reference:
Quaye, S. J. (2011). Girl or woman? Dorm or residence hall? What’s the big deal about language? In P.
M. Magolda & M. B. Baxter Magolda (Eds.), Contested issues within student affairs (pp. 280
290). Sterling, VA: Stylus.