The stabbing attack at the University of Waterloo underscores the dangers of polarizing rhetoric about gender

Police tape on a door following a stabbing at the University of Waterloo on June 28,. Waterloo Regional Police said three victims were stabbed inside the university's Hagey Hall, and the suspected attacker was arrested. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nick Iwanyshyn

In the wake of the recent stabbing attack on a University of Waterloo professor and two students in a philosophy of gender course, we need to talk about the profound power words have to shape our world.

We are both professors at the University of Waterloo who focus on various aspects of gender and language in our research and teaching.