Efforts Now Underway to Make the Oxford Dictionary Less Sexist, Ancient
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It’s been some time since I looked up the word “woman” in the Oxford Dictionary of English, but it seems like it’s best I stay away. According to a new open letter,, the Guardian reports, the definition includes the word “bitch” as a synonym, which….not great!
Nearly 32,000 people have signed a petition, first launched by London resident Maria Beatrice Giovanardi last, asking the Oxford Dictionary to update some of the synonyms included in its definition of “woman,” a number of which seem to herald back to era in which women wore bone-breaking corsets and men were extras in a Guy Ritchie period piece. These synonyms include: bitch, besom, piece, bit, mare, baggage, wench, petticoat, frail, bird, bint, biddy, and filly. Several of these are also words to describe “horse.”