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Feminists attack Oxford Dictionary of English for 'reinforcing sexist stereotypes'
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neilmac
Spain
Local time: 01:50
Spanish to English
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While not wishing to sound sexist myself, perhaps as a man you are unaware of some of the struggles women have had to face in terms of equality? My feeling is that some of the concerns expressed are genuine, and that this is not an to be dismissed outright.
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Ty Kendall 
United Kingdom
Local time: 00:50
Hebrew to English
| Twitter fauxtrage | Jan 25, 2016 |
This Michael fellow has a lot of time on his hands.
I wouldn't dismiss this because of feminism, but I would dismiss it because it starts with "Twitter users..." followed by the practically standard "apologize or resign" demand.
Naturally, they kowtowed and apologized.
I wonder if the rise of Twitter feminism (an often unappealing and off-putting brand of feminism) has anything to do with the record low numbers of women self-identifying as feminists (the polls I have re... See more This Michael fellow has a lot of time on his hands.
I wouldn't dismiss this because of feminism, but I would dismiss it because it starts with "Twitter users..." followed by the practically standard "apologize or resign" demand.
Naturally, they kowtowed and apologized.
I wonder if the rise of Twitter feminism (an often unappealing and off-putting brand of feminism) has anything to do with the record low numbers of women self-identifying as feminists (the polls I have read tend to revolve around the 19% of women mark). ▲ Collapse
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Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 01:50
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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| You know the author has nothing to say when... | Jan 25, 2016 |
You know the author has nothing to say, when he uses Twitter instead of a blog to post his objections. Twitter is a viral medium that yields yes-men (sorry: yes-persons) and no-men (sorry: no-persons) only. If he had wanted us to take him seriously, he would not have used Twitter.
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Vera Schoen
Sweden
Local time: 01:50
Member (2008)
German to Swedish
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| You know a man has nothing to say when … | Jan 26, 2016 |
You know a man has nothing to say when he is busy focusing on everything but the matter discussed, or – worse – ridiculing the fact that women still (2016!) have to struggle to be taken seriously.
Sorry about the harsh wording, but I’m really getting extremely tired when I see men (translators, mind, who ought to be able to read the subtext) simply refusing to see.
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I'm sorry that Alvaro feels victimized by women's feelings of victimization, but ... wouldn't it be better if Oxford selected a different example for the use of "rabid" other than "rabid feminism", does anyone really think that is a bizarre request?
And isn't Twitter (which I find fundamentally idiotic and wouldn't know how to "follow" if I wanted to) actually a very appropriate medium for this particular campaign against sexist usage examples in dictionary entries?
Did Oxford kowtow?... See more I'm sorry that Alvaro feels victimized by women's feelings of victimization, but ... wouldn't it be better if Oxford selected a different example for the use of "rabid" other than "rabid feminism", does anyone really think that is a bizarre request?
And isn't Twitter (which I find fundamentally idiotic and wouldn't know how to "follow" if I wanted to) actually a very appropriate medium for this particular campaign against sexist usage examples in dictionary entries?
Did Oxford kowtow? The only Oxford response mentioned in the article is "Our point is that 'rabid' isn't necessarily a negative adjective, and that example sentence needn't be negative either." (I would interpret this as the use of typical British understatement to express a response that is not suitable for print.)
PS: Dude, did you check out the "11 of the World's Hottest Female Rock Climbers" slideshow link next to the article? Hot! Babes! Dude! Wow! ▲ Collapse
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Ty Kendall
United Kingdom
Local time: 00:50
Hebrew to English
| It would seem someone didn't want to resign... | Jan 26, 2016 |
Michael Wetzel wrote:
Did Oxford kowtow? The only Oxford response mentioned in the article is "Our point is that 'rabid' isn't necessarily a negative adjective, and that example sentence needn't be negative either." (I would interpret this as the use of typical British understatement to express a response that is not suitable for print.)
Indeed they did:
"We were flippant in some of our tweets yesterday. Sorry....We'll review the primary example sentence used for 'rabid'"
https://twitter.com/OxfordWords/status/691001994845294593
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Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 00:50
Member (2008)
Italian to English
| Why not contact them? | Jan 26, 2016 |
The OED welcomes feedback on its editorial content. For this and all other enquiries, please go to the Contact us page.
http://public.oed.com/contact-us/
Wouldn't that be better than pointless moaning ?
[Edited at 2016-01-26 09:56 GMT]
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neilmac
Spain
Local time: 01:50
Spanish to English
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| Bowdlerize this | Jan 26, 2016 |
Samuel Murray wrote:
You know the author has nothing to say, when he uses Twitter instead of a blog to post his objections. Twitter is a viral medium that yields yes-men (sorry: yes-persons) and no-men (sorry: no-persons) only. If he had wanted us to take him seriously, he would not have used Twitter.
Twitter + Witchhunt = Twitchhunt?
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| clarification | Jan 26, 2016 |
Ty Kendall wrote: Michael Wetzel wrote:
Did Oxford kowtow? The only Oxford response mentioned in the article is "Our point is that 'rabid' isn't necessarily a negative adjective, and that example sentence needn't be negative either." (I would interpret this as the use of typical British understatement to express a response that is not suitable for print.) Indeed they did: "We were flippant in some of our tweets yesterday. Sorry....We'll review the primary example sentence used for 'rabid'." https://twitter.com/OxfordWords/status/691001994845294593
Just for clarification: Is that kowtowing or acting like normal, civilized human beings by apologizing for a clearly flippant response and stating that they would review the use of a clearly questionable example sentence?
Despite the Telegraph's headline, the original Twitter posts strike me as the response of a perfectly normal person who stumbled across the "rabid" example while using his dictionary and then became curious and increasingly annoyed while investigating further.
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neilmac
Spain
Local time: 01:50
Spanish to English
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| In an ideal world... | Jan 26, 2016 |
Michael Wetzel wrote:
...wouldn't it be better if Oxford selected a different example for the use of "rabid" other than "rabid feminism", does anyone really think that is a bizarre request?
OK, so the example in question does repeat a hoary old cliche, but the thing is, their examples are drawn from current usage in popular media, i.e. geared to the lowest common denominator, like the tabloid "newspapers" (the article is from the Telegraph, not exactly a bastion of free thinking and/or equality last time I looked). I would expect to see the term "rabid feminism"cropping up frequently in rags like the Daily Mail.
Having said that, it might be interesting to see what the sanitised /bowdlerised versions of the examples given would look like, particularly the entries for "psyche" and "shrill" (I spent quite some time last night trying to think of a better example to define the latter).
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| Agree with Michael | Jan 26, 2016 |
Yes, I think the best response from Oxford would have been to review their dictionary with this in mind. It does give the impression that the dictionary is being reviewed by old men who do not see the problem and/or the wider implications.
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neilmac
Spain
Local time: 01:50
Spanish to English
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| Constructive criticism | Jan 26, 2016 |
Tom in London wrote: The OED welcomes feedback on its editorial content. For this and all other enquiries, please go to the Contact us page. http://public.oed.com/contact-us/ Wouldn't that be better than pointless moaning ? [Edited at 2016-01-26 09:56 GMT]
IMHO it certainly would, especially when the "moaners" immediately jump to conclusions and make ad hoc negative assumptions about anyone they think might not share their opinions.
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