Dear Google, I was just on Facebook, thoroughly enjoying my friends’ extremely interesting and completely unique baby photos, when a social campaign called #redefinewomen popped up in my feed. As you’re aware, the founders of this campaign claim that numerous example sentences featured in your dictionary definitions are sexist, and they’re urging you to change them.
Here are some of their specific examples...
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
1.
arousing pity, especially through vulnerability or sadness.
"she looked so pathetic that I bent down to comfort her"
2.
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. I’m sure it was just an oversight, but if it was deliberate, I propose a third example sentence...
Pathetic
miserably inadequate.
"It would be pathetic if a social movement intentionally disregarded facts that don't fit their narrative"
Anyway, after half an hour randomly searching definitions on your unparalleled search engine, I discovered these...
Fat
(of a person or animal) having a large amount of excess flesh.
"the driver was a fat wheezing man"
Lazy
unwilling to work or use energy.
"he was too lazy to cook"
Dunce
a person who is slow at learning; a stupid person.
"he was baffled by arithmetic and they called him a dunce at school"
Arrogant
having or revealing an exaggerated sense of one's own importance or abilities.
"he's arrogant and opinionated"
Useless
having no ability or skill in a specified activity or area.
"he was useless at football"
Twisted
(of a personality or a way of thinking) unpleasantly or unhealthily abnormal; warped.
"a man with a twisted mind"
Ignorant
lacking knowledge or awareness in general; uneducated or unsophisticated.
"he was told constantly that he was ignorant and stupid"
Aggressive
ready or likely to attack or confront; characterized by or resulting from aggression.
"he's very uncooperative and aggressive"
Assault
make a physical attack on.
"he pleaded guilty to assaulting a police officer"
Insane
(of an action or quality) characterized or caused by madness.
"his eyes were glowing with insane fury"
Criminal
a person who has committed a crime.
"these men are dangerous criminals"
Arsehole
a stupid, irritating, or contemptible person.
"he's a total arsehole"
If I had the time and motivation, I'm sure I would uncover many more examples. When asked about the #redefinewomen campaign, a spokesperson for Google said, "As a company, we strongly value gender equality and a diversity of perspectives, ideas and cultures. We are looking into the issue, but you can always give feedback on definitions you find unacceptable, so we can improve these results over time."
Does that mean you'll be looking into the example sentences that negatively portray men? Unless, of course, you're comfortable with them being depicted as: fat, lazy, stupid, arrogant, useless, twisted, ignorant, aggressive, violent, insane, criminal, arseholes.
The point is: if you start policing language, who decides what's offensive, and where does it end? Why stop at example sentences in the dictionary? Why not change the definitions themselves, or delete those words from our vocabulary altogether? If we're going to do that, I'd like to request we ban: moist, phlegm, smear, squirt and synergy.
Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses— arguably one of the most 'offensive' books ever written—said:
“Nobody has the right to not be offended. That right doesn’t exist in any declaration I have ever read. If you are offended it is your problem, and frankly lots of things offend lots of people. I can walk into a bookshop and point out a number of books that I find very unattractive in what they say. But it doesn’t occur to me to burn the bookshop down.”
If #redefinewomen don't like specific example sentences, then perhaps they shouldn't use them. No one's forcing them to, and they're more than welcome to use words in any way they see fit. Being offended doesn't constitute an argument; a sentiment echoed by Stephen Fry:
“It’s now very common to hear people say, ‘I’m rather offended by that.’ As if that gives them certain rights. It’s actually nothing more... than a whine. ‘I find that offensive.’ It has no meaning; it has no purpose; it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. ‘I am offended by that.’ Well, so fucking what.”
And if you think those guys are just mansplaining, perhaps straight-talking country music legend, Dolly Parton, summed it up best:
“If I have offended anybody with any of my language, all I can say is tough titty.”
So, if you decide to alter the example sentences presented by #redefinewomen, because you feel they perpetuate oppressive female stereotypes, then you must—in the name of "Gender equality and a diversity of perspectives, ideas and cultures"—do the same with the ones that negatively stereotype men, or #redefinemen. Just be careful not to offend any of the 71 genders now available to choose from on Facebook.
Agender, Androgyne, Androgynes, Androgynous, Bigender, Cis, Cis Female, Cis Male, Cis Man, Cis Woman, Cisgender, Cisgender Female, Cisgender, Male, Cisgender Man, Cisgender Woman, Female to Male, FTM, Gender Fluid, Gender Nonconforming, Gender Questioning, Gender Variant, Genderqueer, Intersex, Male to Female, MTF, Neither, Neutrois, Non-binary, Other, Pangender, Trans, Trans Female, Trans Male, Trans Man, Trans Person, TransFemale, TransMale, TransMan, TransPerson, Trans*Woman, Transexual, Transexual Female, Transexual Male, Transexual Man, Transexual Person, Transexual Woman, Transgender Female, Transgender Person, Transmasculine, Two-spirit
Alternatively, you could ignore the selective outrage of recreationally offended hashtag slacktivists, and tell both myself and #redefinewomen to FUCK OFF! Not only would that be wonderfully equal, it might even prompt us to understand that coddling people by creating a safe space from negative connotations isn't empowering, it's regressive, it's infantilising, it helps breed a culture of politically correct faux victimhood, and it's the kind of hypocritical virtue signalling that stifles freedom of expression.
Who knows, maybe we'll even realise that the fact we're in a position to lobby for the alteration of example sentences in a dictionary illustrates just how privileged we really are.
My suggestion, and I think #redefinewomen would be in favour of this, would be to calculate how much money it would cost for a team of lexicographers to research and change every negative, gender-specific example sentence in the dictionary, and donate that amount to charities that deal with issues that actually impact people.
My pick would be Médecins Sans Frontières, an international humanitarian aid organisation that treats some of the world's most vulnerable people, regardless of their gender, race, religion, creed or political affiliation.
Feel free to donate too, or if you'd prefer a charity closer to home, use the greatest search engine on the planet to find one.
Anyway, thanks for reading. I very much look forward to hearing from you.
Regards,
Rich Wisken
P.S. Is it possible to permanently delete your entire search history? (asking for a friend)