“Anti-Abortion”

I’m very anti-abortion: no one should ever be in a position where ending a pregnancy is the best choice. To prevent as many abortions as possible, I support sex education for children before they’re sexually active, easily available contraception for everyone, the free provision of the best prenatal care possible. As a last resort, I support the stress-free ending of pregnancy within 90 days for any reason — as do a clear majority of Americans — and ending a pregnancy at any time should significant medical reasons arise.

If you’re “anti-abortion” and you don’t support proven abortion-reducing measures, you’re actually just “pro-forced-gestation” … and an asshole.

Not convinced? Read “Access to free birth control reduces abortion rates” by Diane Duke Williams.

“S/he”

How does the way someone dresses or wears their hair have an impact on your life? Genetic coinflips can have a profound influence on each of our lives, but we don’t freak out about eye color, webbed toes, or the presence — or absence of ear lobes.

Stop fixating on someones genitals — or anything else about their body — and worry about your own presentation, ‘cuz right now you’re looking pretty ugly.

Not convinced? Read “Beyond ‘He’ or ‘She’: The Changing Meaning of Gender and Sexuality” by Katy Steinmetz.

“Females”

Calling anyone “a female” is arrogant, reductive, and dehumanizing. When someone does this, I suspect they have a strong bias against women, and I look for (and usually find) additional evidence of this bias.

At best, it’s bizarrely clinical and awkward, unless followed by an actual noun, like “female gamer,” but why are you discussing gender anyway? Hopefully to fight stereotypes, and not play into them.

Not convinced? Read “Stop Calling Us ‘Females’ for Real, Though” by Ashley Velez.