Aston University warns students against using sexist or prejudicial words

A university is encouraging students to stop using the words manmade, mastercopy and civilisation because it believes they have sexist or racist connotations.

Sociology undergraduates at Aston University in Birmingham have been advised to find replacements for words that could be seen to reinforce prejudices.

Offending words include immigrants, third world, tribe, civilised and, in some contexts, native, all because of their colonialist or racist overtones.

Offending words include immigrants, third world, tribe, civilised and, in some contexts, native, all because of their colonialist or racist overtones

Language deemed to be sexist includes one-man show, old masters, forefathers, seminal and masterful.

Instead the alternatives of one-person show, classical arts or artists, ancestors, classical or formative, and domineering should be used.

The document was leaked by a student who was too worried about reprisals to complain, said Toby Young, general secretary of the Free Speech Union.

A university spokesman told The Times: ‘Sociologists are trained to think critically about language, and about how language can reproduce effects of power and exclusion.’