© PicasaRichard Dawkins says he is not going to be dictated to by 'some teenage version of Mrs Grundy'
Richard Dawkins has vowed to "use every one of the prohibited words" that scientists have called to be phased out because they are no longer inclusive.
On Tuesday, academics working in ecology and evolutionary biology called for the avoidance of words such as male, female, man, woman, mother, father, alien, invasive, exotic and race. Instead, they encouraged the use of terms such as "sperm-producing" or "egg producing" or "XY/XX individual" to avoid "emphasising hetero-normative views".
But Prof Dawkins, the eminent evolutionary biologist and author of The Selfish Gene and the God Delusion branded the suggestions ridiculous.
"The only possible response is contemptuous ridicule," he told The Telegraph.
"I shall continue to use every one of the prohibited words. I am a professional user of the English language. It is my native language.Other experts also branded the alternatives "absurd" and argued they could cause confusion in scientific fields.
"I am not going to be told by some teenage version of Mrs Grundy which words of my native language I may or may not use."
They also pointed out that the terms "egg producing" and "sperm producing" were simply synonyms for male and female, and continued to confirm that sex is binary.
Comment: Unfortunately, common sense seems to have no power over the woke mentality.
Prof Karol Sikora, a cancer expert, said: "I certainly do not agree and such language will not be appearing in any of my scientific work."
Commenting on the research on GB News, Francis Foster, the comedian, said: "As always with these things it's completely meaningless, it's going to obfuscate what we are actually talking about and it's laughable, it's beyond parody."
The EEB Language Project, which was launched in this month's Trends in Ecology and Evolution journal, is compiling a repository of "problematic words" that have been identified by US and Canadian scientists as harmful and it suggests alternatives.
For example, participants have flagged the term "citizen science" saying it could be "harmful to people who do not have a nation state". Instead they suggest "participant science or community science".
'Microaggressions'
The academics warned that minority researchers were experiencing "microaggressions" from words such as "invasive".
They also claimed that anti-trans language has been used to describe male snakes that engage in female mimicry, and warned phrases such as "sneaky mating strategy" could "normalise problematic male sexual behaviour".
The term "invasive" or "non-native species" is also deemed to be "xenophobic, anti-immigrant, and militaristic" and could be replaced with "newly-arrived" or "nuisance species", they suggest.
Comment: The mind boggles.
Writing in the journal, the authors said:
"One of our authors trained in the USA recalls 'how tired I was as an undergrad hearing how invasive species from other countries decimate pristine US ecosystems. It reminds me of when people tell me or other people of colour to go back to where we came from. Why would I want to be in a field that exoticizes immigrants or reinforces narratives that immigrants are a plague?'"Even the phrase "double-blind", which is often used to describe trials in which neither the participants nor scientists know if someone is on a drug or placebo, has been deemed potentially offensive to those with disabilities, as has the phrase "survival of the fittest".
Comment: The mind boggles further . . . .
The authors also included a "positionality statement" in their paper warning they held "varying degrees of marginalisation and privilege based on our social identities, professional roles, and educational training".
"Our team of authors includes graduate students, staff, postdoctoral scholars, and assistant professors employed across historically white and minority-serving institutions in the USA and Canada, and several authors have personal ties to other countries," they warn.
Sarah Knapton is the Science Editor for The Daily Telegraph. Follow her on Twitter @sarahknapton.
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