Words matter.
And as scrutiny increases over what language is appropriate and inappropriate to use, it can be harder to find the right words.
To navigate this, Oxfam released an ‘inclusive language guide’ to help staff talk about its work.
Among the recommendations is that parent replaces mother and father. Humankind is suggested in place of mankind.
And “is affected by” should be used when describing someone with a health condition.
Releasing the guidance – which included an apology for being in English, “the language of a colonising nation” – saw the charity find itself at the centre of a ferocious backlash.
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The Daily Mail was so cross it covered the story on the front page with a 30-word standfirst before its ‘Beyond parody’ headline.
Friday's Mail: Beyond Parody! #TomorrowsPapersToday #DailyMail #Mail pic.twitter.com/2jLCkCGQfn
— Tomorrows Papers Today (@TmorrowsPapers) March 16, 2023
Here are a few other headlines:
Oxfam tells staff: Stop saying mother and father The Times
Don’t say mother or father as it could offend, Oxfam tells staff Telegraph
Additionally, LBC labelled the guide ‘bizarre’.
Conservative MP Robert Buckland said: “Most people will find this particular use of valuable time and resources by Oxfam totally bizarre. It would do them well to remember the old adage that actions speak louder than words."
Maya Forstater, founder of the pressure group Sex Matters, accused Oxfam of “erasing” the word mother and said it was “trying to apply fashionable ideas about gender identity to people around the world.”
And the Plain English Campaign said Oxfam was putting “optics” ahead of “clarity”.
Oxfam’s tweet about the guide has had more than five million views.
Opinions will vary about the guidance, as they did when it was announced Roald Dahl's novels would be rewritten to eliminate words readers might find offensive. And some of it will probably make more sense than other parts.
But such has been the ferociousness of the attacks, it would have been understandable if the charity opted to keep a low profile and wait for the latest ‘woke’ storm to blow over.
Instead, Oxfam GB CEO Dr Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah appeared on Good Morning Britain.
And he delivered what one of our Media Team Academy members described as a “superb” performance.
In fact, it is a great example of how spokespeople should manage hostile media interviews. And was packed with the advice and techniques we highlight during our media training courses.
Dr Sriskandarajah faced questions of wasting donated money on the guidance, was accused of “wokeness gone mad” and it was suggested supporters found it “offensive” the charity was “apologising for the use of their English language”.
One of the things we stress during our media training is the importance of composure. Spokespeople must avoid getting drawn into an argument or fight with journalists despite the provocation.
It would have been easy for the Oxfam boss to fall into that trap. Instead, he was calm, addressed concerns and provided clear explanations.
Here’s what he said about supposedly banning the word mother.
“Let’s talk about the word mother,” he said.
“We’re about to celebrate Mother’s Day and please come to one of our shops up and down the country where we will be prominently celebrating the role of motherhood in our society.
“What this guide is saying is what my kid’s school has been saying for a long time – a lot of the forms we fill in these days at school say parent or guardian. They don’t say mother or father, recognising that there are same-sex couples, there are trans and non-binary parents.
“So, we are just updating our language to catch up with most British organisations.”
There are a couple of things that stood out about this answer. Firstly, there is a risk critics can present guidance like this as being created by someone who is out of touch with the real world.
Comparing the language suggestion to that used in a school letter – something many viewers would be able to relate to – dispels that notion and shows it has been happening for some time.
The other aspect I like is that it is a detailed answer. When questions become aggressive, spokespeople often fall back on short answers.
It would have been easy for Dr Sriskandarajah to say something like, “we’re not banning the word mother”. But such an answer would sound defensive and surrender control of the interview.
The other answer – in an interview full of good ones – that stood out for me was in response to the question about supporters being offended by the apology for the guidance being in English, “the language of a colonising nation.”
“Surely it is a fact that English was spread throughout the world through colonialism, just as Spanish and Portuguese was,” he said.
“But the more important point here is that Oxfam is a proud manifestation of British internationalism, British kindness, British compassion.
“I am incredibly proud to work for an organisation that is one of the biggest and best-known charities in the world. It was founded by no accident because Britain has been an internationalist society for many decades.
“And I think it is really important we shouldn’t get distracted by these sorts of debates and that we talk about the things we should be talking about.
“The word we should be talking about this morning is famine. In east Africa we are seeing the worst drought we have seen in decades, and someone is likely to be dying from hunger every six seconds.”
Did you notice the bridging media training technique in that answer?
Dr Sriskandarajah briefly answered the question and then subtly steered the conversation to an issue the charity wanted to highlight.
Brilliant stuff.
And he took a similar approach to the final question that asked whether he was concerned the guide will “put people off supporting Oxfam”.
Here he again briefly answered the question and then steered the conversation away with an example of what he learnt from the guidance.
“No, I think most of our supporters will understand we are an organisation that wants to end poverty and in order to do that, we have to be as inclusive as possible,” he said.
“I really urge people to read our guide - it is a really helpful way of understanding the world.
“I read it and learnt, for example, we should avoid using words like sanitary products or hygiene products to describe period products because the word sanitary makes menstruation feel dirty.
“I didn’t know that. I now know that maybe I should rethink the way I use words like sanitary products.”
Oxfam’s guidance has still received plenty of criticism. But that’s not a reflection of the CEO’s interview performance - views on subjects like this tend to be entrenched.
We will undoubtedly refer to it during our media training courses to highlight how spokespeople can handle challenging and confrontational interviews – just as we’ve highlighted the lessons you can learn from its reputational crisis in 2018.
And we’ll take Dr Sriskandarajah’s advice and see what we can learn from the guidance.
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