How can women continue to make progress and fight against systematic sexism when the very words we use have biased definitions? This is what social media users are asking after they saw the #RedefineWomen campaign initiated by two women Georgia Patch and Kiah Nicholas. They seem to feel that the example sentences Google provides are unfairly sexist. The movement’s Instagram page is filled with such examples. Have these definitions seeped so deep into people’s subconscious that they just look past it?
Debbie Pfisterer: “Google defines dumb, housework, conniving, and ugly with the use of the pronoun “She” and noun “Woman” #redefinewomen”
Laurel Eggleston Hayes: “In order to change attitudes, we need to also change stereotypes and perceptions. Its like in the the constitution, where it says “...all men are created equal”...shouldn’t it say, all people are created equal? That’s true equality.” Samantha Spruill: “The word man, or men, does mean people. And when the documents were written they were talking about people both male and female. Just to clarify because a lot of people don’t seem to know that it means the same.” Tina Degner : “My ex-husband was a control freak with anger issues also referred to as a nag. That word is for anyone that will not stop berating - male or female and child for that matter.” Karim Ali: “Reference works reflect reality. The reality is that people use language in a sexist manner. That’s what we should address. This is like getting an F on a test and trying to make it look like a B using a marker.”
Lariisa Stewart: “Well, why not make change starting with commonly used dictionaries? Sexism is learned behavior.”
However, no everyone agreed with the campaign.
Brie Jackson: “I applaud the effort but I dont agree - the examples used by dictionaries are meant to be relatable to the largest audience so as to understand the word and how to use it. I don’t think colloquial phraseology and societal norms are Google’s fault.”
Rich Wisken : “After reading these, I wondered if this issue was exclusive to women, so I decided to do a little Googling of my own. Funnily enough, I started with ‘Pathetic’, one of the words #redefinewomen use to highlight their case for sexism. You can imagine my surprise when I discovered this... Pathetic - miserably inadequate.
‘he’s a pathetic excuse for a man’.”
I’m sure many reasonable people would consider the second, male-centric example much more antagonistic than the one put forward by #redefinewomen. Being “Pro equality”, and as concerned about negative, gender-specific example sentences as they are, I was rather shocked that they cropped it out.
Corey R. Avanthay: “Yet not a single word about definitions which use male examples in a negative light, for example the definition of brute is exclusively male, does your little movement have any intention to address male issues here aswell #RedefineMen”
