Our language and the words we use are essential in shaping our culture and our norms. Even without us realizing it, the language we use can shape the way we think, causing us to accept a multitude of untruths. For instance, words like “firemen” or “policemen” can inadvertently lead to masculine default bias - the notion that men are the only ones who can or should hold these positions, as only men do these things. While that may have been true in the past, that language doesn’t reflect our current society or what we want our society to look like anymore. Gender neutral alternatives like “firefighter” or “police officer” are readily available, and are commonly used in many places today.
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