Alphabetical Entries: B

this common abbreviation for "Before Christ" is sometimes replaced by B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) to remove the Christian element from dating—although ironically B.C.E. has sometimes been taken to mean "Before the Christian Era." See also A.D.

picturing women as children and playthings has been highly damaging.

originally implying an unmarried parent, these slang terms have also been used of married parents or those in a relationship. Use only if you really know your pop culture, and if you're certain your context isn't sexist or racist.

this nice, inclusive word is used in one highly sexist manner. Todd Melby, Minneapolis, says that when he's out with his child, he's been "complimented" by people for babysitting. He says he is parenting, "not just giving Mom a few minutes away from the kids." While mothers are never considered to be babysitting their children, fathers often are.

a single aspect of a person's life becomes the whole of the person when "bachelor" is used. If a reference to marital status is necessary (it rarely is), use single. "Unmarried" and "unwed" perpetuate a marriage-as-norm attitude and don't include the divorced. We write and speak as if marriage and parenthood somehow grant validity to a person when in fact the married and unmarried often have more in common than not. Note the nonparallel connotations of the supposedly parallel "bachelor" and "spinster." Women go from bachelor girl to spinster to old maid but men are bachelors forever.

woman. If a reference to marital status is necessary (it rarely is), use single woman. See bachelor, single, spinster.

B.A., B.S., undergraduate degree, college degree, four-year degree, baccalaureate. "Baccalaureate" means a college or university bachelor's degree and is therefore an exact synonym for "bachelor's degree" without gender-specific overtones (although its Latin roots are masculine).

power brokers, wheeler-dealers, politicos, strategists, movers and shakers.

see primitive.

settler, wilderness settler, backsettler, pioneer, woodlander, woodcutter; hermit, recluse; backwoodsman and backwoodswoman.

bad actor/news, villain. There are few good alternatives because virtually all the "bad guy" words in our language are perceived as referring to men, even those that are not sexist per se. Although in theory the following words could be used of a woman, in practice they rarely are: bounder, brigand, bully, cad, cheat, creep, crook, deviate, double-crosser/-dealer, evildoer, four-flusher, gangster, goon, heel, hoodlum, hooligan, jerk, louse, lowlife, mobster, mountebank, mugger, outcast, outlaw, punk, racketeer, rascal, rat, ratfink, renegade, reprobate, rogue, rotter, ruffian, scalawag, scoundrel, scum/scumbag/scuzzbag/scuzzbucket, sleaze/sleazebag/sleazeball, slimebag/slimeball/slime bucket, suspect, thug, turkey, two-timer, ugly customer. In addition, the gender default for words like hoodlum, jailbird, and murderer, which are technically inclusive, is male because the majority of hoodlums, jailbirds, and murderers are men. Why this is so (classism, racism, poverty, and the cult of masculinity are big factors) and what we can do about it cannot be solved at the level of language, but recognizing male-tagged and female-tagged words can raise our consciousness of the issues—and consciousness precedes action. Negative words for women focus on sexual promiscuity (Julia Penelope Stanley, in Papers in Language Variation says there are 10 times as many words for sexually promiscuous women in our language as there are for men); negative words for men focus on moral vileness—almost all such terms are for men, and we traditionally personalize both "enemy" and "devil" as male. See also animal names for people, bastard, devil/he, jackass, perpetrator, Satan/he, schmuck.

bag woman/bag man, street person. The gender-fair use of "bag woman" and "bag man" (not the nonparallel lady/man) is sometimes appropriate although we tend to hear more about the bag woman than we do about the bag man. See also homeless, the.

there is no parallel for a man.

baggage checker/handler/agent, porter.

bagger, go-between, shark, racketeer, peculator, receiver.

bail agent, bond agent, bail bond agent/poster; provider, guarantor, bonding institution, underwriter.

tennis court attendant, ball/court attendant, ball tender/fetcher.

these slang terms for sex convey a number of twisted and sexist attitudes: they are violent, they are non-reciprocal, and they make objects of the partner. Avoiding these words won't change attitudes, but paying attention to language encourages awareness of the values that underpin it.

a ballerina is a principal (but not the principal) female dancer in a company, a soloist. Although the term is commonly used to refer to any female ballet dancer, this is not, strictly speaking, correct. The French word for a female solo dancer is danseuse; ballerina is the Italian equivalent and the term most commonly used in the United States. The male equivalent is ballerino, although the term is rarely seen. Retain "ballerina" for its narrow meaning within ballet companies, but describe anyone who dances ballet nonprofessionally as a ballet dancer. See also danseur/danseuse; premier danseur; prima ballerina.

these titles are standard within professional ballet companies; in other contexts, use ballet instructor/teacher.

acceptable sex-specific word when it means testicles. Women are occasionally congratulated with "That took balls!" or encouraged with "You have the balls for it." For inclusive metaphorical use, substitute guts, moxie, courage, nerve, bravery, self-assurance, confidence, determination, stamina, spunk. For "ballbreaker/ballbuster," meaning a difficult or complicated task or situation, use gutbuster, tough row to hoe, killer, bad news, hell on wheels, no picnic, up a tree, hell of a note, tall/large order, tough grind/one, tough sledding, sticky business, stumper, uphill job, tight spot. For "ballbreaker," meaning a woman, see bitch, castrate/castrating, shrew. See also ballsy.

a term that has slipped so far from its original mooring that it can be applied to females (Hugh Rawson, Wicked Words). See also balls.

Bengaluru. Indians and residents of that city use the old name and the newer name interchangeably.

this female spirit has no male counterpart, but she plays an important part in Gaelic folklore; use as is.

applied until recently to members of Bantu-speaking tribes.... Among linguists and anthropologists it is still in carefully controlled use but is otherwise taboo in most uses because of South African whites' use of it as an offensive name for black Africans (Kenneth G. Wilson, The Columbia Guide to Standard American English). "Bantu" is still acceptable when referring to the group of more than 400 closely related languages in the Niger-Congo language family.