Oxfam inclusive language guide

Bonkers! That's another charity off my list to donate to. I only donate regularly to the RSPB and local food banks now.

Very noble of them. I hope that Oxfam staff are practicing what they preach, e.g. that when they're busing in 'girls of the night' to entertain them in Haiti, Chad, etc, they're happy to take anyone who identifies as female.

Isn't DEC an umbrella organisation though, @howmanybicycles? If they are, I suspect they'll be only as good as their component parts. So no good at all.

I prefer small, local and long-term charities like anti-FGM ones.

I cancelled my Oxfam direct debit yesterday and told them why.

I will also tell my local shop why I will no longer donate goods to them or buy from them.

The document confuses gender and sex and thereby refuses to recognise sex based oppression. It also says everyone has a gender identity, which is a lie. I have donated every month to oxfam for 25 years and I will be stopping that today and giving to an alternative charity. Does DEC have a better moral compass as far as people know?

GMB interviewed the Oxfam GB CEO.

They didn't start the interview by asking for his pronouns, and he didn't request theirs either. Clearly he's not following his own guidance.

This seems to have hit twitter and the papers. Sorry, only a DM (darling Mail?) link but I think the Times is also running an article. If it isn't picked up by the Telegraph I'd be very surprised, the Guardian though, not so much.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11869961/Oxfams-new-92-page-inclusivity-guide-calls-English-language-colonising-nation.html

I am sure the women living lives of violence and oppression will be so pleased with this evil pure, meaningless drivel

Ah ok. Thanks for responding Lana

Ah ok. Thanks for responding Lana

Yes, absolutely! I read that too. Well worth a read,

Absolutely!

Colonisation by U.S originated academic theories is the new oppression. How ironic!

I like your colleague's style. More power to her elbow.

How much did they pay some consultant to come up with that pile of shite?

she was an audience member who I think spoke at the end of the showing of Adult Human Female so I’m not sure that bit was filmed. However, FiLiA panels have also spoken about this kind of thing.

On a similar note

Gender norms are important to our understanding of inequality because in every country in the world, they lead to the devaluing of women;

Bit colonialist? I thought other cultures had third genders that we should be learning from.

Can anyone recommend a decent charity?

Also, I've mentioned it before on another thread. This made me think of Ethan Watters talk/ book 'Crazy like Us', where he describes the damage some western NGOs did going into disaster zones to impose Western notions of trauma and trauma care. They couldn't recognise that the cultures they came to 'help' might have their own meanings and resources for managing suffering and repair.
Sometimes I think it's akin to 'a little knowledge an be a dangerous thing'.

That's shocking Lanadelray!
Is that talk from the conference available online anywhere please?

I despair of the NGOs ever coming to recognize the irony of their own form of colonialism.
Being able to recognise our own blind spots requires critical and contextual thinking, and exposure to and openness to differing viewpoints.
I don't have faith in, or see much evidence of, these things being valued right now. (My DS is off to Uni next year, and this doesn't hold the joyous excitement I would like to feel for him.)

It's so disheartening to see so little of this In the culture- and institutions right now. At a time in history- where so much knowledge and connection is available too! We could be so wise instead of, as it seems, getting rapidly more ignorant.

And the knock on effect of this lack has such enormous world wide implications- especially for the truly most vulnerable . As your example highlights.

Sorry for ramble. It's late and this stuff sends me off on a spin!

A woman from DR Congo spoke clearly and eloquently at the UCL conference about how groups of women fighting to protect women from rape during the intractable civil war had to use the ‘right’ language to gain assistance and money from western NGOs. No effort to listen to and hear what those who desperately need aid actually want - modern colonisation in practise

You're not supposed to speak about yourself at all. Just sit and smile enigmatically, like a good, passive woman.

💨 (that's JellySaurus disappearing in a puff of smoke for having said a forbidden word)

I am really puzzled by the fact I am not supposed to describe myself as 'senior' or 'elderly'. Nor if I want to talk about the recently born, should I allude to 'youth'…...

She sounds great!

I had a colleague who used to get pissed off by virtue-signalling 'inclusive' language.

"Don't call me visually impaired," she'd say, "I'm blind. I can't see a fucking thing. The one thing I can see is that you're afraid of my blindness." She was take-no-hostages awesome.

I’m so pleased i no longer donate to Oxfam. People who give them their hard earned money must be so pleased to discover that this is what they spend it on.