Top trolling, Oxfam. Short of demanding a ban on common sense, warm beer and Fawlty Towers, it could scarce have done more to endanger blood vessels in the anti-woke faction by publishing its 92-page “inclusive language guide” for staff and contributors. Incorporating sections on “feminist principles for language use” and “race, power and decolonization”, as well as an acknowledgement that “this guide has its origin in English, the language of a colonising nation”, it met with predictable uproar and ridicule from, among others, the Mail, the Telegraph and GB News.
These outlets seemed especially exercised by the idea that the gender-neutral “parent” might be preferable to “mother” or “father” in certain contexts, and by advice to avoid terms such as “headquarters” and “field trip” because of their colonial connotations. Suitably damning comments were gathered from, among others, the “gender-critical” campaigners Helen Joyce and Maya Forstater, the Tory MP and muse to Suella Braverman John Hayes, and the Free Speech Union’s Toby Young. Oxfam responded that the guide was intended to be merely that, a guide, and not prescriptive, and would “help authors communicate in a way that is respectful to the diverse range of people with which we work”.
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