The Ministry of Health of the Government of Valencia has developed a short guide for the non-sexist use of language with instructions for workers to address patients in the health field.
They propose that instead of children, a term that is often used to address boys and girls interchangeably, use "creatures, childhood, minors or childhood" to avoid sexist language.
The introduction of the six-page leaflet distributed among hospital staff and health centers of all autonomy, explains the reason for the initiative:
"A use of the masculine is usually justified by saying that it is generic and covers both genders, but the principle of" linguistic economics "and for reasons of style, since a non-sexist language is usually related to the double forms (eg citizens and citizens) ) but that is a false topic.
For this reason it is necessary to make changes in the language we use regularly so that you can name women who are treated in health services or in the work environment so that they become visible and contribute to defining them as people with their own identity and not subject to the generic male, thus avoiding assigning gender stereotypes".
Among the words and expressions he proposes are modified to avoid his sexist connotations is delete the female article followed by a masculine noun, such as "the doctor" or "the president", which is a grammatical error. Instead, he suggests addressing them as "the head of service" or "the medical director," for example.
It also proposes to refer to as "older people" instead of saying "the elderly", or "sick people" instead of "the sick" to avoid the generic male. Thus, he also suggests referring to "doctors" and "nurses" as "medical personnel" or "nurses", respectively.
A guide that raises controversy
The writer Arturo Pérez-Reverte He was one of the most critical of the promoters of the manual, whom he called "fools and fools".
Creatures and creatures, I guess. And it turns out yes. Although we are already very tight, they still fit fools. And fools. //t.co/i37WGTMy65
- Arturo Pérez-Reverte (@perezreverte) June 14, 2017
For its part, the socialist Carmen Montón, promoter of the manual emerged from the Equality Unit of the Ministry of Health, responded to the writer with these words:
There are plenty of insults to despise actions in favor of equality. From the symbolic to the structural everything is important We continue working //t.co/bruivQzZcP
- Carmen Montón (@CarmenMonton) June 14, 2017
Too Javier Fumero, from his blog on El Confidencial Digital, criticized the initiative by recalling a similar proposal promoted by the British Medical Association.
This recommended that doctors not refer to pregnant women using the expression “expectant mothers” but that of “pregnant people” with the aim of also include transsexuals They could get pregnant.
Equality does not stop calling them children
The same happens with innumerable terms that we use daily in our daily lives. If we have children of both sexes, to refer to all (no matter how many), we say "my children", but according to the manual they should be called "offspring".
To refer to Juancito's father and mother, we say Juancito's parents, and we would refer in the same way if it were two men. If they were two women, we would say Juancito's mothers. And the same happens when we talk about children in a generic way. We want to say boys and girls.
Do you think it is necessary to make this linguistic distinction to refer to children? Would you call children "children" or "children" to avoid sexist terminology? I think that avoiding sexism is not what we call children, but in how we educate them in equality so that they are free, open, respectful and tolerant.
