Inclusive language isn’t even a particularly new “woke” thing. The phrase “Ladies and gentlemen” goes way way back.
I’m going to assume you’re in the white men majority, probably christian, so it seems weird to you because by default, people use he/him and male centric wording. Lets flip it for a second: female is now the default. You’re presumed to be a woman unless proven otherwise. Everything starts with “Ladies, welcome to the show”. All the products are pink and advertised to women, unless it’s specifically a men’s product, and when it does, it clearly says “for men” like you’re a special kind of human. You buy a wrench “for men” to fix your car. People always talk to your wife first, as you’re just the wife’s husband she’s hauling around. How do you feel? Pretty excluded right?
That’s why we use inclusive language. And we didn’t even touch LGBTQ+ issues yet.
It’s not hard to not make assumptions. I can use “OP claimed they did X” instead of "OP claimed she did ", with zero loss of information, but the first one is right whether you’re a man or woman, the other assumes you’re a woman and implies you’re unusual for not being a woman, you’re the other kind that needs to be explicitly mentioned. And it happens all day, everyday, all the time.
So, if you want to include everyone, you don’t make gender, race, political alignment or religious assumptions unless you know for sure. It’s basic respect, it’s free, and it makes some people happier, so why not do it?
Inclusive language isn’t even a particularly new “woke” thing. The phrase “Ladies and gentlemen” goes way way back.
I’m going to assume you’re in the white men majority, probably christian, so it seems weird to you because by default, people use he/him and male centric wording. Lets flip it for a second: female is now the default. You’re presumed to be a woman unless proven otherwise. Everything starts with “Ladies, welcome to the show”. All the products are pink and advertised to women, unless it’s specifically a men’s product, and when it does, it clearly says “for men” like you’re a special kind of human. You buy a wrench “for men” to fix your car. People always talk to your wife first, as you’re just the wife’s husband she’s hauling around. How do you feel? Pretty excluded right?
That’s why we use inclusive language. And we didn’t even touch LGBTQ+ issues yet.
It’s not hard to not make assumptions. I can use “OP claimed they did X” instead of "OP claimed she did ", with zero loss of information, but the first one is right whether you’re a man or woman, the other assumes you’re a woman and implies you’re unusual for not being a woman, you’re the other kind that needs to be explicitly mentioned. And it happens all day, everyday, all the time.
So, if you want to include everyone, you don’t make gender, race, political alignment or religious assumptions unless you know for sure. It’s basic respect, it’s free, and it makes some people happier, so why not do it?