How Do I Frame Dated or Offensive Historic Language and Content for a Modern Audience?
What is this resource for?
This resource suggests approaches for framing historic language and content that might be upsetting or offensive to a modern audience.
Examples of this include words once commonly used to describe a person or a group of people, images showing items or activities that were acceptable at the time but no longer are, or language about disabilities or mental health.
What are the key points?
- When writing about heritage and history, we often encounter dated language that can be upsetting or offensive to a modern audience. If writing about it in our own words, we should use the language that our audiences use today
- Language around inclusion, equality and diversity is constantly changing as our understanding of the past and different identities evolves
- A content note is something that the audience sees before reading the text or viewing an image. Content notes provide advance warnings about potentially distressing or upsetting topics, giving audiences the option of avoiding them should they wish to
Why should we think about how we frame dated language?
When writing about heritage and history, we often encounter dated language that can be upsetting or offensive to a modern audience. If writing about it in our own words, we should use the language that our audiences use today.
However, we will often need to reference, quote, or show words and images that might upset or offend. Below are some suggestions for how to help contextualise this for the audience and avoid potential harm.
Language around inclusion, equality and diversity is constantly changing as our understanding of the past and different identities evolves. Even language that was acceptable 10 years ago might not be appropriate today.
Content note
This resource refers to dated language about mental health. We are using this language to demonstrate how to write content notes like this one and to help organisations avoid upsetting their audiences.
What is a content note?
A content note is something that the audience sees before reading some text or viewing an image that gives them advance warning about anything potentially distressing or upsetting they might see, to give them the option not to look. It is a gentle indication of when content is of a sensitive nature and might cause distress.
Content notes are not new things, think about watching your favourite soap opera, often a voiceover beforehand will tell you if the episode is dealing with challenging or upsetting themes, and sometimes there will be helplines or other ways to seek support at the end.
Let’s take the word ‘lunatic’ as an example. In the late 19th and early 20th century, the word was commonly used, and was a legal termto describe people with mental illnesses. From the 1930s onwards, the legal term was changed. The term appears in many historic records; in building names, on plaques and memorials, in archival documents.
If using your own words to describe a person, a place or something that happened, you should avoid using this term, and use ‘mental illness’ instead where relevant. However, if you are quoting a historic source, you could use a content note at the beginning of your text, video or audio.
For example:
Content note
This blog post includes historic language about mental illness, quoted from a historic source. While we would not use this language ourselves, we have retained it here to contextualise the attitudes of the 19th century.
On social media, sometimes content notes will be much shorter.
For example:
Use of offensive language about mental health.
It is better to provide a little more context where appropriate and possible to ensure the reader or viewer has enough information to decide whether to continue.
Where might you use content notes?
When producing or sharing content, there are several ways that content notes can helpfully explain why historic language is being used.
For example:
- In social media posts, when sharing an image of a document or source that contains dated language
- In videos, content notes often appear on screen at the beginning, but they should also be included in a voiceover for your visually impaired audience. You might want to mention the exact timecode in the video when the language is used
- In blog posts or articles, the content note should be at the beginning of the text
- Content notes should appear at the beginning of lectures, talks, and presentations. The speaker should remind people before sharing the relevant slide. They could also share when they expect to discuss it during the presentation by (for example) mentioning which slide precedes it
- For online archives or library records, it might be appropriate to have a blanket content note that covers all records. Individual content notes in addition to that are preferable, where possible
Content notes are more typically used to prepare audiences for content relating to abuse, violence, and the use of contemporary slurs.
You might also want to use content notes to explain contemporary language. For example, as part of Historic England's Pride of Place project, which aimed to uncover LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer) heritage across England, we explained the language we were using:
Content note
Historical terminology to describe sexual and gender identities has changed over time. ‘Homosexual’ is a word coined in the 19th century, while ‘gay’ and ‘trans’ are even more recent.
Pride of Place uses the term ‘Queer’ as an inclusive term. In the past, ‘Queer’ has been used negatively but also for self-identification. Today, many use the term to acknowledge the complexities of gender and sexuality not addressed by LGBT.
Example: Historic England Archive
As part of the Historic England Archive’s work to become more inclusive, a project is underway to review and assess the language used in over 2.3 million catalogue records. We are identifying any potentially offensive terminology and ensuring it is replaced or contextualised as appropriate. Where necessary, we will add content notes to our records.
Here is the blanket content note for the Archive:
We recognise that a small proportion of our historical collections contain words or imagery that may be upsetting or offensive. We have taken the decision not to remove or suppress historical content as it is important in tracing our diverse histories. Instead, we are working to identify and contextualise any potentially upsetting or offensive content.
Upsetting or offensive views represented by historical content in our collections do not reflect the views of Historic England.
We are also taking steps to ensure that the language used in our catalogues does not include terminology that could cause offence. If you come across any such language in our catalogues, please contact us.
Below is the content note we use for images in our collection:
A small number of the images in this collection contain potentially offensive or upsetting content. We have taken the decision to retain these images as they are important in representing the attitudes and trends of a particular time in the past. Instead, we have endeavoured to include information in the catalogue record which contextualises upsetting content within the image.
And here is a content note used for an individual image:
We recognise that this image contains upsetting or offensive content. We have taken the decision to retain this image as it is important in representing the attitudes and trends of a particular time in the past.
Further reading
The University of Cambridge. Guidance for staff and departments on using content notes, much of which is applicable in this context.
Collections Trust: Inclusive Terminology Project. A comprehensive glossary of discriminatory and dated language which offers appropriate alternatives.
National Museum of World Cultures (Netherlands): ‘Words Matter’. Similar to the above, this resource (from page 89 onwards) explains a range of words relating to inclusive and diverse identities in their historical contexts.
