Words are important to Alison Segel. As a Writer and the creator of the Forever Nasty feminist zine, they should be. One word in particular, though, got stuck right up in her craw. That’s when she was able to effect a small, but meaningful change.
As Segel relates in this video form Super Deluxe one of her readers alerted her to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary definition of the word “femininity”. According to her, the actual definition itself was fine. The example the dictionary’s editors used, however… not so much.
According to Segel it said, “something like, ‘she managed to become a CEO without sacrificing her femininity.” Yeah. Not good. Not good at all.
Following that discovery, Segel struck up a viral online campaign directed at the normally positive, normally very reactive Merriam-Webster crew and, well, we’ll let her tell the rest in the video below.
Sure, it is (as said) a small change, a matter of a few words. As we continue to see day in, day out in our newsfeeds, words are very important right now. When women are able to take possession of the words that matter to them, however, it’s no little matter.
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