FIRST ON FOX: Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, R-Ark., is setting the record straight on femininity in Arkansas, introducing an executive order to mandate the use of gender-specific terms when describing women and “prohibit the use of woke, anti-women words for official state government business.”
“The science is clear and real; There are things only women can do, like perform the miracle of birth,” Sanders wrote in the executive order shared first with Fox News Digital. “Government should reject language that ignores, undermines, and erases women; Government should celebrate gender distinctions between men and women – not erase them.”
Sanders’ order comes as states, workplaces and schools around the country are pushing the use of what they refer to as “culturally conscious” or “inclusive” language – initiatives that commonly attempt to remove femininity from terms used to describe women.
In the spring, the Arkansas Department of Health issued a memo on drinking water that described how small per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) can have negative effects on “pregnant people.” Sanders’ new order will require the state to use the terms “pregnant women” or “pregnant mom” when describing someone who is expecting a child.
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Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (Thomas Metthe/Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
The governor wrote that rather than refer to females as a “menstruating person” or “menstruating people,” to use the terms “woman” or “women.”
Rather than “birthing person,” use “birth mom,” and rather than “chestfeeding,” use “breastfeeding.”
And rather than “laboring person,” use “birth mom,” and “woman” instead of “birth-giver.”
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Sanders has firmly stood on the side of opposition to removing femininity from terms referring to women. As the first woman to serve as Arkansas governor, Sanders has slammed President Biden as “the first man to surrender his presidency to a woke mob that can’t tell you what a woman is.”
Amid a nationwide trend to replace gender-specific terms, the city of Portland recently urged city staff members to adopt a more “culturally conscious” vocabulary that included not using words such as “women,” “Caucasian” or “citizen.”
An elementary school in Vermont was criticized for telling parents it would be removing “male” and “female” language from its fifth-grade science lessons covering the human body and reproduction, while a Missouri school district decided to use “they/them” pronouns in math class to help kids’ “mathematical identities.”
In several other cases, the “inclusive” push stretches beyond gender to removing religious terms from vocabulary.
Riley Gaines, the former championship swimmer who was forced to compete against a biological male. (Riley Gaines)
Michigan State University released an “inclusive” language guide for its students that suggested “in winter and spring, avoid references to majority religious imagery and language, such as the word ‘merry’ or ‘Christmas trees,’ ‘wreaths,’ ‘holly,’ ‘bells,’ ‘gifts,’ ‘reindeer,’ ‘bunnies,’ ‘eggs’ and ‘chicks,’” the style guide suggested. “Use terms like ‘wishing you a wonderful winter/spring break’ or ‘best wishes for the new year.’”
Sanders remains a vocal critic of allowing biological men to compete in women’s sports, writing in May that “strong, conservative governors will never allow women’s sports to be destroyed by a woke mob that can’t even tell you what a woman is.”
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Sanders’ executive order is to be signed Oct. 19.
Fox News’ Alexander Hall contributed to this report.
