WEBVTT

NOTE Paragraph

00:00:11.021 --> 00:00:14.172

I think about gender all the time.

00:00:14.602 --> 00:00:15.662

Literally.

00:00:16.112 --> 00:00:18.102

I'm a reproductive biologist.

00:00:18.342 --> 00:00:19.422

(Laughter)

00:00:19.422 --> 00:00:22.523

I own the only commercial
sperm bank in Colorado,

00:00:23.253 --> 00:00:27.263

I direct a non-profit that specializes
in reproductive health education,

00:00:27.263 --> 00:00:33.053

and I teach a really fun class
at the University of Northern Colorado

00:00:33.053 --> 00:00:35.523

called Human Sexuality.

00:00:35.523 --> 00:00:37.313

(Cheers) (Applause)

00:00:38.545 --> 00:00:41.465

In this class, we spend a lot of time

00:00:41.465 --> 00:00:44.398

discussing the importance
of inclusive language.

00:00:45.248 --> 00:00:48.530

One of the biggies in this arena
is gender-neutral language.

00:00:48.900 --> 00:00:52.689

This is a hot topic in our broader
cultural conversation right now

00:00:52.689 --> 00:00:53.999

because using it

00:00:53.999 --> 00:00:59.740

allows those who do not subscribe
to a male or female gender binary

00:00:59.740 --> 00:01:01.510

to feel included.
00:01:02.090 --> 00:01:07.262
Feeling included is important;
it creates a safe space.

00:01:08.222 --> 00:01:09.872

That is why, as a society,

00:01:09.872 --> 00:01:15.442

we're trying really hard not to pigeonhole
people, places, clothing, or even color

00:01:15.442 --> 00:01:17.272

into this gender binary.

00:01:17.502 --> 00:01:20.012

And this is a tough transition.

00:01:20.452 --> 00:01:24.172

After all, we put gender qualifiers
on a lot of things.

00:01:24.632 --> 00:01:28.624

Girl and boy clothes, girl and boy colors,

00:01:29.284 --> 00:01:32.274

girl and boy jobs.

00:01:33.254 --> 00:01:36.254

But unfortunately,
these gender qualifiers are not unifying

00:01:36.254 --> 00:01:39.924

because they force us
to focus on our differences,

00:01:39.924 --> 00:01:42.254

and if all we do
is focus on our differences,

00:01:42.254 --> 00:01:46.595

we can't see our similarities,
and if we can't see our similarities,

00:01:46.595 --> 00:01:51.236

we can't come to the middle,
and the middle is crucial,

00:01:51.236 --> 00:01:52.946

because if we can get there,

00:01:52.946 --> 00:01:57.036

we can live in a truly equal
and welcoming society.

00:01:57.496 --> 00:01:59.626

(Applause)

00:02:01.636 --> 00:02:03.517

Sounds pretty nice, right?
00:02:03.517 --> 00:02:08.427
All we have to do is phase out language
that doesn't serve this higher purpose.

00:02:08.807 --> 00:02:10.308

So, where to begin?

00:02:10.958 --> 00:02:14.678

Well, for me, it begins
with phasing out one word:

00:02:15.368 --> 00:02:16.838

feminism.

00:02:17.628 --> 00:02:18.838

(Audience) Yeah.

00:02:18.838 --> 00:02:20.078

(Applause)

00:02:20.078 --> 00:02:21.329

Growing up in the '60s,

00:02:21.329 --> 00:02:23.949

the feminist movement
was hitting its stride.

00:02:23.949 --> 00:02:27.489

I remember images of women
tossing their bras into barrels

00:02:27.489 --> 00:02:29.589

to express their newfound freedom.

00:02:30.339 --> 00:02:32.060

But it was also around this time

00:02:32.060 --> 00:02:35.819

that I began to get this uneasy feeling
with the word 'feminism.'

00:02:36.059 --> 00:02:37.480

I didn't understand it.

00:02:37.820 --> 00:02:39.181

But I do now.

00:02:39.621 --> 00:02:40.731

The word 'feminism'

00:02:40.731 --> 00:02:45.071

subscribes to a very strict
male or female gender binary.

00:02:45.381 --> 00:02:47.361

When someone tells me they're a feminist,

00:02:47.361 --> 00:02:50.951

I take it to mean that they see extreme
differences between men and women

00:02:50.951 --> 00:02:53.722

and no so much our similarities.

00:02:54.192 --> 00:02:56.433

It feels polarizing.

00:02:57.563 --> 00:02:58.813

I am female.

00:02:59.343 --> 00:03:04.773

I am a scientist, business owner,
writer, wife, mother, teacher, PhD holder.

00:03:04.773 --> 00:03:07.213

I am a lot of things.

00:03:07.213 --> 00:03:10.163

(Cheers) (Applause)

00:03:12.013 --> 00:03:13.893

But I am not a feminist.

00:03:15.294 --> 00:03:18.155

Now, you might be glancing
at your neighbor.

00:03:18.675 --> 00:03:20.104

(Laughter)

00:03:20.104 --> 00:03:21.395

"What?

00:03:22.155 --> 00:03:26.605

She's speaking at TEDxMileHighWomen,
and she's not a feminist?

00:03:27.395 --> 00:03:29.255

She's probably wearing a bra too."

00:03:29.255 --> 00:03:31.516

(Laughter)

00:03:32.246 --> 00:03:34.517

But I wanted to speak here
today on this stage

00:03:34.517 --> 00:03:37.347

because so many of us in this room
want the same thing:

00:03:37.347 --> 00:03:38.476

equality.

00:03:38.476 --> 00:03:43.776

And I feel the best way for us
to get there is to change our language.
00:03:44.517 --> 00:03:47.677
We've seen the benefits
of changing our language before.

00:03:48.167 --> 00:03:52.868

Let's address how language
allowed us to view

00:03:52.868 --> 00:03:55.289

the hallowed institution of marriage.

00:03:55.789 --> 00:03:58.708

The gay marriage movement
began decades ago,

00:03:59.028 --> 00:04:03.128

but calling it gay marriage by the media,
and almost everyone else,

00:04:03.128 --> 00:04:06.329

allowed its adversaries
to focus on the differences

00:04:06.329 --> 00:04:09.030

between opposite-sex
and same-sex marriage,

00:04:09.030 --> 00:04:11.470

and they kept focusing on the differences,

00:04:11.470 --> 00:04:16.320

and not the core of marriage,
that being two people who love each other.

00:04:16.320 --> 00:04:17.461

(Cheers)

00:04:17.461 --> 00:04:20.381

(Applause)

00:04:20.381 --> 00:04:25.520

But then, years passed, attitudes shifted,

00:04:25.520 --> 00:04:27.550

the political climate changed,

00:04:27.550 --> 00:04:31.172

and a new, more powerful label
to the movement took hold:

00:04:31.582 --> 00:04:33.699

the marriage equality movement.

00:04:33.699 --> 00:04:36.511

It was no longer gay marriage;
it was marriage equality.

00:04:36.511 --> 00:04:39.933

One word, one concept,
level playing field.

00:04:40.293 --> 00:04:43.513

This new language changed the conversation

00:04:43.513 --> 00:04:49.552

and required us, as a society, to address
the issue of civil liberties for all.

00:04:51.002 --> 00:04:53.311

We are standing on the shoulders of giants

00:04:53.311 --> 00:04:56.466

when it comes to the fight
for gender equality.

00:04:56.876 --> 00:05:00.037

There were the suffragettes
in the late 1800s,

00:05:00.037 --> 00:05:03.394

the Equal Rights Amendment, early 1900s,

00:05:03.394 --> 00:05:06.557

Rosie the Riveter, World War II,

00:05:07.117 --> 00:05:11.607

and of course in the '60s,
the explosion of the sexual revolution

00:05:11.607 --> 00:05:15.266

and access to birth control,
right around the same time -

00:05:15.266 --> 00:05:16.426

good thing too.

00:05:16.606 --> 00:05:18.627

(Laughter)

00:05:19.177 --> 00:05:23.668

But interestingly, when we look back
at their fliers, pamphlets, and banners,

00:05:23.668 --> 00:05:27.478

we see the words 'women'
and, or, 'equality'

00:05:27.478 --> 00:05:30.639

more than we see the word 'feminism.'

00:05:31.879 --> 00:05:33.968

But that was a while ago.

00:05:34.348 --> 00:05:38.679

We need to address what happens now
when we use gender-specific language.
00:05:39.039 --> 00:05:41.590
If used incorrectly, we bury the lead

00:05:41.590 --> 00:05:45.381

and we don't shine the spotlight
on the issue that really matters.

00:05:45.721 --> 00:05:46.980

For example,

00:05:47.910 --> 00:05:53.092

earlier this year, there was a scientist
that was awarded $1.1 million

00:05:53.092 --> 00:05:57.210

to continue their research
in a fight for a cure for cancer.

00:05:58.100 --> 00:05:59.182

Based on the headline,

00:05:59.182 --> 00:06:02.171

you couldn't be certain
what the article was going to be about.

00:06:02.561 --> 00:06:06.282

The article reads, "Alabama scientist,

00:06:06.852 --> 00:06:10.564

one of the nation's
few black, female physicists

00:06:10.844 --> 00:06:13.124

breaks ground in cancer research."

00:06:14.204 --> 00:06:18.583

Imagine what our response would have been
if the headline read like this:

00:06:19.343 --> 00:06:21.244

"Alabama scientist,

00:06:21.524 --> 00:06:25.126

one of the nation's
many white, male physicists

00:06:25.126 --> 00:06:27.576

breaks ground in cancer research."

00:06:27.576 --> 00:06:28.916

(Laughter)

00:06:30.076 --> 00:06:31.506

Yeah, that would be strange.

00:06:31.506 --> 00:06:32.556

(Laughter)

00:06:32.556 --> 00:06:37.817

So, why do we put
gender qualifiers in one headline

00:06:37.817 --> 00:06:39.757

when we wouldn't put them in another?

00:06:40.487 --> 00:06:45.328

Gender qualifiers get in the way
and so does the word 'feminism.'

00:06:46.748 --> 00:06:51.195

It is so focused on the gender binary
that it is leaving people behind,

00:06:51.195 --> 00:06:56.207

and I feel that the word itself
is stalling the movement.

00:06:56.807 --> 00:07:00.929

And these people that it's leaving behind,
I don't mean just men.

00:07:00.929 --> 00:07:04.400

There's even an organization
called Women Against Feminism,

00:07:04.990 --> 00:07:07.669

and while they have
a lot of complaints about feminism,

00:07:07.669 --> 00:07:11.030

if you look at their comments
it stems around three major concepts.

00:07:11.300 --> 00:07:14.409

One: they don't want what they call
'Radical Feminists'

00:07:14.409 --> 00:07:16.571

telling them what they can and cannot do.

00:07:16.921 --> 00:07:20.822

Two: they don't want
to be judged by other women;

00:07:20.822 --> 00:07:25.772

and three: they say they're not oppressed
because they already feel equal to men.

00:07:26.472 --> 00:07:29.522

So perhaps the word 'feminism'
has outlived its time

00:07:29.522 --> 00:07:30.933

and that's okay.

00:07:30.933 --> 00:07:33.833

There are a lot of words
we have said goodbye to
00:07:33.833 --> 00:07:36.454
because we have evolved beyond them.

00:07:37.594 --> 00:07:41.605

I know there may be some people
who will have trouble giving up this word.

00:07:42.105 --> 00:07:45.106

They may feel that it does
a disservice to the feminist movement

00:07:45.106 --> 00:07:46.695

or that we devalue women,

00:07:46.695 --> 00:07:48.965

but it doesn't have to mean
either of those.

00:07:48.965 --> 00:07:52.796

What it will mean is that we will
embrace a new word, a new concept,

00:07:52.796 --> 00:07:55.687

that supports all people
in all of their struggles.

00:07:55.957 --> 00:07:57.498

And what will that word be?

00:07:57.998 --> 00:07:59.467

Equalism.

00:08:00.007 --> 00:08:03.027

It doesn't subscribe to a gender binary,
it is gender-neutral,

00:08:03.027 --> 00:08:06.167

and it is very clear
about what the goal is.

00:08:06.887 --> 00:08:10.297

That is why I am an equalist.

00:08:10.297 --> 00:08:12.138

(Applause)

00:08:14.329 --> 00:08:16.839

A couple of weeks ago,
I assigned my college students

00:08:16.839 --> 00:08:18.439

a one-page journal entry.

00:08:18.999 --> 00:08:20.729

They had to respond to the question,

00:08:20.729 --> 00:08:23.789

"What does the word 'feminist'
or 'feminism' mean to you?"

00:08:23.789 --> 00:08:25.849

Their responses may surprise you.

00:08:26.059 --> 00:08:27.853

While many felt that feminism

00:08:27.853 --> 00:08:31.050

was the concept
of not discriminating against women,

00:08:31.730 --> 00:08:36.111

just as many felt that the word
was outdated or that it had no meaning.

00:08:36.551 --> 00:08:41.571

But all of them used the word 'equality'
when trying to define it.

00:08:42.631 --> 00:08:45.502

You don't have to be a feminist
or use the word 'feminism'

00:08:45.502 --> 00:08:46.952

to want equality.

00:08:47.282 --> 00:08:49.582

So, if equality is what we want,

00:08:49.582 --> 00:08:51.962

then 'equality' is the word
we should be using

00:08:51.962 --> 00:08:57.883

because when we change the language,
we change the movement.

00:08:58.673 --> 00:08:59.783

Thank you.

00:08:59.783 --> 00:09:01.083

(Applause)

00:09:01.083 --> 00:09:03.243

(Cheers)