Can I force WordPress to use <i> instead of <em>?

For example,

Did you know that <em>hot</em> was used to mean
"<a title="What is the origin of “hot” as “good-looking”
or “attractive”?" href="http://english.stackexchange.com/a/84227/1696">
sexually attractive</a>" as long ago as 1450? (Though it seems that
in earlier use, it more commonly meant "sexually attract<em>ed</em>".)

The second use of <em> in the above is correct: I want to emphasise the suffix -ed. However, the first use is incorrect. I want to use italic type to indicate the “use/mention distinction”. This is the proper preserve of the <i> tag. But WordPress autoconverts <i> to <em>. Is there any way to get around this?