Bias and sensitivity guidelines

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Bias and sensitivity guidelines are guidelines that have been set up by several major textbook and standardized test publishers to remove potentially offensive words and phrases from their texts.

These guidelines establish lists of objectionable issues, words, and stereotypes, which should be avoided by writers. Not all agree about the lengths to which such lists should go, however. Some say that they have gone too far; others argue that they have not gone far enough.

The guidelines and lists, nearly identical versions of which are used by every major textbook publisher ^{[citation needed]}, prohibit words which are of great consequence to some groups and subcultures. Specific stereotypes banned include women cooking, men working, and old people resting.

Some opponents argue that forbidding the portrayal of stereotypes completely is as much a misrepresentation as holding them to be generally true.

[edit] Examples:

Banned from all textbooks by most publishers are the following words ^{[verification needed]}:

"dark" (banned as a reference to skin color)
"red" (banned as a reference to hair color)
"pink" (banned as a color of girls clothing)

Banned (as being sexist) are also the following "man" words ^{[verification needed]}:

"humanity" (replace with civilization or human race)
"mankind" (replace with civilization or human family)
"seaman" (replace with sailor)
"serviceman" (replace with member of the armed forces or gas station attendant)
"showman" (replace with entertainer)
"sportsman" (replace with outdoor enthusiast)
"sportsmanship" (replace with sporting conduct)
"chairman" (replace with chair or chairperson)

[edit] Regional bias

One of the less widely-supported theories used in standard bias and sensitivity guidelines is regional bias. Simply put, regional bias is the idea that setting a story in a certain location puts at a disadvantage those children who read the story but are unfamiliar with the location.

For example, a story about a mountain climber would be regionally biased against readers who have never climbed a mountain, or a story about a farm would be regionally biased against those who have never been to a farm.

Some critics of the theory argue that this makes the insulting claim that one cannot imagine anything beyond what one has experienced; others maintain nonetheless that it is an important part of the guidelines.