Madonna King: If you were a woman, would you stay in Donald Trump’s America?

Words matter. They describe what is important, and banning them is like burning books, with the same chilling effect. And yet, this is what is now happening under Donald Trump, writes Madonna King.

Sunday Mail columnist Madonna King. Picture: David Clark

The word ‘women’ might soon be extinct. And the same fate awaits hundreds of other words, like ‘diverse’, ‘injustice’, ‘race’, ‘bias’, ‘feminism’, ‘identity’, ’pollution’, ‘trauma’, ‘pronoun, ‘equity’, ‘minority’ and ‘marginalised’.

Words matter. They describe what is important, and banning them is like burning books, with the same chilling effect. And yet, this is what is now happening in Donald Trump’s America, where words that describe sexual violence, suppression, disadvantage and encourage advocacy, enterprise and equality are being outlawed.

Phrases, too, are on the chopping block with ‘climate change’, ‘fostering inclusivity’, ‘enhancing diversity’, ‘unconscious bias’, ‘Paris Agreement’, ‘hate speech’ and ‘men who have sex with men’ the first to go.

I guess if you can’t say it, perhaps it doesn’t happen…

It’s no laughing matter, though. These words and phrases are among those that US government agencies are now limiting, avoiding or removing from websites, and policy documents, school curricula and other materials.

It doesn’t stop there. According to a team at The New York Times, which has developed the long list after examining thousands of pages of policy documents on and off line, many of the outlawed words also prompt a review of any grant proposals or contracts that might not sit proudly beside Donald Trump’s wishes.

This is Risible. Asinine. Injudicious. And if those rewriting dictionaries across the US don’t understand those multisyllabic words, perhaps they’ll understand that the move to rid our language of important descriptors is dopey, dotty and dorky.

Of course, the move in the US is to wash conversation of important concepts. The Gulf of Mexico is a telling example. Trump signed an executive order (number 14172) directing its name be changed to the Gulf of America; a pen stain that ignores the fact that the area has been called the Gulf of Mexico since the 1550s!

Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum speaking about the Gulf of Mexico.

So what happens if the word ‘women’ is used in fewer and fewer public or policy documents? Or if federal agencies no longer use the term ‘immigration’?

What happens when we can’t debate gender based violence, which is also banned, or ‘clean energy’. Many of the banned words focus on women and gender issues, difference and diversity, and the underprivileged. What happens when those groups no longer have a voice?

Discourse should not be for sale. Government should not be allowed to censor speech. It mutes important voices, skews policy, and panders to old power.

But this type of extremist, dumb nonsense is gaining momentum here in Australia too. Secret white nationalist meetings. The recruitment of lonely teen boys, searching for meaning online. Loud and empty voices stamping out reason and softness, where it is needed most.

We don’t have to follow America with everything. We can enjoy the imported television and movies, and eschew the ugly politics. We can marvel at the beauty of the Grand Canyon, and ignore the stupidity that covers many of its recent decisions.

We can love the lyrics of Jimmy Webb. And hate the antics of Kanye West. And this latest attempt to strip people of their vocabulary needs to be shouted down, before it gets to our borders.

With the starter’s’ pistol – certainly a phrase still allowed in the US – sounding on our own federal election, both Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton need to understand that populist nonsense is populist nonsense. And sometimes you can even win, when you run against the prevailing winds.

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli.

Premier David Crisafulli this week dared to say ‘sorry’; a word we don’t hear enough from politicians and policy makers, wrongdoers and those, usually, with the biggest incomes.

“I am sorry,’’ he said, after an Olympic-sized backflip on Brisbane’s Gabba stadium. He said he had to accept the blame for his backflip, and wear any political fall out.

And guess what? The sky didn’t fall in. His opponents had less substance to attack. And voters, some of whom had elected him because of his promise not to build a new stadium, applauded him for “facing up to the music”.

Perhaps that will be the next phrase to go…

Routinely in an election, politicians will look around at what is working elsewhere and try to make their own territory ‘great again’. Now there’s a phrase I’d happily ban.

But wouldn’t it be sublime if our politicians in this election engaged in debates on everything from the cost of living to crime, pollution to parenting, advocacy to abortion - believing that we are all clever enough to make our own decisions, in our own accent.

Originally published as Madonna King: If you were a woman, would you stay in Donald Trump’s America?