Thread: Unmated records

?Writing in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution, researchers said efforts to 'champion inclusive language' in science is 'particularly important for redressing the ongoing marginalization of many groups'.
So which 24 terms are in the firing line?

Harmful Term	Context	Replacement Term
alien / non-native / exotic / invasive	Xenophobic, anti-immigrant, and militaristic	Non-endemic species / Newly arrived species / Non-Indigenous species / Introduced species / Nuisance species
blind / double blind / plant blindness	Disability metaphor	Awareness
citizen science	'Citizen science' is harmful to non-citizens who are excluded by that language	Participant science / Community science /
feminized / masculinized	Feminized implies that 'feminine' and 'masculine' are biological traits rather than social constructs	Describe the specific traits
gypsy	Racial slur used to incite violence against Romani people	'Spongy moth'
man / woman	Highly anthropomorphic / Biases towards men or male traits	Male or female / Human
names after racist / eugenic / colonizers	They hold up problematic figures as noteworthy/someone to remember or celebrate	Use Indigenous names / Use local names / Name based on appearance or morphology / Remove names from concepts
survival of the fittest	Eugenics, ablelism, and social Darwinism	Natural selection / Survival differences
Gender	Gender, a social construct, is often conflated with sex	Sex
Hermaphrodite	Derogatory term used to cause harm to the intersex and trans individuals.	Monoecious/intersex/bi-gametic
Indian	A discrominatory, racist, term used to describe indigenous people	Indigenous
Male/female	These terms are used to reinforce societally-imposed ideas of a sex binary, emphasising cis-normative and hetero-normative views	Sperm-producing/egg-producing or XY/XX individual
Mother/father	These terms perpetuate a non-universal heteronormative and cisnormative view of the parenting and birthing process.	Parent/egg-donor/sperm-donor
Noose	Term associated with anti-Black violence and lynching	Lasso
Primitive/advanced	Used derogatorily towards humans or human practices, and also scientifically inaccurate as implies an evolutionary hierarchy	Ancestral/derived
race	Perpetuates the idea that human race is a biological rather than social construct when used to describe non-human subspecies	Population/subspecies/ecotype
virgin	A social construct that reinforces heteropatriarchal norms	Unmated
colonization / colonizer	Terms are harmful and triggering for Indigenous people that have been subjugated to colonialism, racism, and genocide and use of the term describes normalizes it as natural phenomonen rather than a destructive one with human context.	established / early successional species
discover / discovery	Erases the longstanding, detailed ecological knowledge of Indigenous communities that have been involved with local environments and ecosystems before colonialism and western science.	identified / described
harem	Perpetuates offensive stereotypes of human cultures, particlularly those of the Middle East, and evokes a sexualized human power structure in which women are assumed to be subjucated to men.	mating group / polygny
master / master file / master equation / master variable	Perpetuates harmful stereotypes and connotations to the enslavement of people of color and normalizes language implicated with slavery and enslaved people.	primary / main document / primary equation or variable
Old World / New World	Perpetuates a colonial and Eurocentric view of the world that is offensive to the international community and Indigenous peoples that lived in the region and contributed to scientific knowledge before European colonialism.	the relevant location
rape	Equates rape with a reproductive strategy rather than a violent and traumatic act, which can lead to dangerous misconceptions that is a natural behavior, and the use of the term forces survivors to be confronted with it which is traumatic.	forced copulation
slave and/or master / slave-making ants / slavery	Normalizes slavery and colonoliasm as a natural phenomonen in the wild, which if harmful to cultures and people of color subjugated to these practices and does not represent the animal behavior accurately.	host and parasite / 'pirate' ants / coercion