
Getty Image / Frank Jansky / Icon Sportswire
THE Ohio State University and the Buckeyes Football team were catching strays on Thursday.
This came after the @APStylebook account fired off a tweet about the dehumanizing use of the word ‘the’. The AP Style Book recommends writers avoid using ‘the’ labels.
Their tweet reads:
“We recommend avoiding general and often dehumanizing “the” labels such as the poor, the mentally ill, the French, the disabled, the college-educated. Instead, use wording such as people with mental illnesses. And use these descriptions only when clearly relevant.”
UPDATE: the AP deleted their tweet and issued an apology
We deleted an earlier tweet because of an inappropriate reference to French people. We did not intend to offend.
Writing French people, French citizens, etc., is good. But "the" terms for any people can sound dehumanizing and imply a monolith rather than diverse individuals.
— APStylebook (@APStylebook) January 27, 2023
That is why we recommend avoiding general “the” labels such as the poor, the mentally ill, the wealthy, the disabled, the college-educated.
— APStylebook (@APStylebook) January 27, 2023
Instead, use wording such as people with mental illnesses or wealthy people.
Use these descriptions only when clearly relevant and that relevance is made clear in the story.
Be specific when possible and relevant, such as people with incomes below the poverty line.
— APStylebook (@APStylebook) January 27, 2023
The Stylebook also recommends using a mix of identity-first language (homeless people) and person-first language (people who are homeless) if the preference of an individual or group can't be determined.
— APStylebook (@APStylebook) January 27, 2023
Let’s ignore the fact that they mentioned ‘the French’ for a moment. We’ll discuss that eventually. Because we’re here to talk about THE Ohio State Buckeyes.
It didn’t take long after that APStylebook tweet for OSU tweets to start rolling in:
From an anonymous source: @APStylebook dehumanizing The Ohio State University cc @OhioState https://t.co/dExPcAqjV9
— Mike Lonergan (@mikelonergan85) January 26, 2023
It is hard to tell who is pro-THE Ohio State University and fans of other schools who are dragging them:
THE @OhioState University entered the chat…
— awbanky (@awbanky) January 26, 2023
Time to drop ‘the’?
You hear that @OhioState?
— Menacing Squid 🦑 (@SquidWithKnife) January 26, 2023
Ohio State doesn’t have ‘THE’ in their Twitter handle. Food for thought.
THE Ohio State University @OhioState now known as state university of Ohio.
— it’s with an f (@StefanieParty) January 26, 2023
Agreed. Stop saying, "The" @OhioState
— … (@JaysonWinn) January 26, 2023
It would be great to see THE Ohio State University’s official Twitter account reply to this nonsense at some point:
Wonder how @OhioState feels about this
— Tommy Tuffknuckles (@Nation_419) January 26, 2023
Sadly. I looked through several thousand tweets and not a single person… Not ONE that I could find is making a joke about ‘The U’. We cannot say The U is back until they’re getting dragged on Twitter like the Blue Bloods.
I’d wanted to write this article about The U and being pulled into this conversation. The Spun has also covered this Ohio State phenomenon. But The U isn’t even part of the conversation!
Elsewhere in the mentions, everyone is making jokes about The French and THE Batman:
where do we stand on this pic.twitter.com/FErQgzgwsI
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) January 26, 2023
People experiencing Frenchness.
— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) January 26, 2023
Sums up the French logging onto Twitter and seeing this nonsense:
— Anthony F. Irwin (@AnthonyIrwinLA) January 26, 2023
While we’re at it…
Went ahead and fixed it for you.
cc: @hjghassell pic.twitter.com/7KwoB1O1mP— Skip Foster (@skipfoster) January 26, 2023