Destruction of Language

A brief note on the erasure of mothers and fathers.

Like so many of our institutions, the state of Wisconsin has embraced the destruction of the English language by gender ideology.

There are few words in our language more beautiful than mother and father. We see the bitter fruits of this ideology in its savage erasure of language, which in turn eliminates the possibility of clear thinking about the most deeply human realities. “Mother” indicates not just a voluntary function, but a permanent relationship—my mother is always my mother, come what may. The dehumanizing substitute, “inseminated person,” destroys the relational dimension and its enduring meaning. It also turns a woman (another banished word) into a mere repository for sperm, hardly a sign of respect. Likewise, consider the change from “paternity” to “patronage”: the former is permanent (I may be a bad father but I’m always a father), whereas patronage is voluntary and can be withdrawn at will. A permanent relationship is erased in favor of a vague philanthropic attitude toward one’s children.

The abuse of language always precedes the abuse of power. These changes are not benign, and we should pay close attention to where they are leading us. Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel, Brave New World, opens with a terrifying scene describing the “Central London Hatchery,” where new human beings are manufactured in test tubes according to strict industrial quality-control criteria. It’s worth recalling that the word “mother” was banned in Brave New World. Our political leadership might want to note that this classic of 20th Century literature was meant to be a cautionary tale, not an instruction manual.

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