Staying updated on the actions of President Donald Trump’s administration can feel like playing an especially frantic (and decidedly not-enjoyable) round of Whack-a-Mole.
Amid the din of pop-up notifications, you may have missed several over the past month about Trump-led efforts to combat the alleged scourge of diversity, equity and inclusion – through word policing. Indeed, he has ordered the erasure of a lengthy list of terms from all government websites, and called for discontinued use of them in other contexts, such as school curricula.
Among the phrases slated for current and future scrubs: “Women,” “female” and “feminism.”
Though it is within the administration’s permitted scope to modify language rules in official government communications, both the nature and breadth of the list of prohibited words is noteworthy. And his team is acting fast to make this a reality – a New York Times analysis found that over 250 federal agency sites have already been accordingly tweaked since Trump handed down the edict last month.
When it comes to women in particular, they aren’t stopping at the mere removal of words and terms. Grants and federal contracts designed to support women are on the chopping block; government forms will now ask for the signer’s “sex” instead of “gender;” and pronoun information is now banned from government email signatures.
That’s not all. Critical health resources for women, including information about contraceptive access and use, have also been deleted in this process. The Pentagon, meanwhile, is now actively ridding its online presence of commemorative posts about female military members who made history, as well as tens of thousands of pictures of women who have, or are currently serving.
It’s worth noting that, while officials have acted quickly, this initiative has not been carefully executed. In their haste to rid government entities of anything that might be considered “woke,” officials took down information about things like the Enola Gay, the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb during warfare – because, you guessed it, they wanted to purge all use cases of the word “gay.”
These acts are also very much at odds with one of Trump’s day-one edicts: An executive order calling for “restoring freedom of speech and ending federal censorship.” Specifically, it mandated an end to language considerations and modifications “that advanced the government’s preferred narrative about significant matters of public debate.”
Those in charge aren’t concerned about the irony – they’re happy about the changes, despite questionable motives and slap-dash execution. Pentagon spokesman John Ullyot said in a statement to the Associated Press that he is “pleased by the rapid compliance across the Department with the directive removing DEI content from all platforms.”
Women in particular will surely have that elation in mind while struggling to properly identify themselves on official forms, vie for grants to support our small businesses or access resources on HIV prevention. And our weary nation overall will undoubtedly rest more soundly now that we’re protected from the big, scary words.
