Dictionaries Are Not the Enemy

Almost 30,000 people have signed a petition calling for Oxford University Press to change the “sexist” definitions of the word “woman” in some of its dictionaries.

Launched this summer by Maria Beatrice Giovanardi, the petition points out that Oxford dictionaries contain words such as “bitch, besom, piece, bit, mare, baggage, wench, petticoat, frail, bird, bint, biddy, filly” as synonyms for woman.

The petition calls on Oxford to  1) eliminate all phrases and definitions that discriminate against women and/or connote men’s ownership of women, 2) to enlarge the dictionary’s entry for ‘woman, and 3) to include examples that are representative of minorities.

While the petitioners' efforts are well-intentioned, it is laudable that the Oxford folks are resisting such over-zealousness and taking a more sensible approach. 

For instance, Oxford’s head of lexical content strategy Katherine Connor Martin has said that editors are investigating “whether there are senses of woman which are not currently covered but should be added in a future update.

She also pointed out that the content referred to in the petition is not from the Oxford English Dictionary, but from the Oxford Thesaurus of English and the Oxford Dictionary of English, which are drawn from “real-life use” of language,  Martin added, “If there is evidence of an offensive or derogatory word or meaning being widely used in English, it will not be excluded from the dictionary solely on the grounds that it is offensive or derogatory.”

The petitioners also criticize the fact that the definition of "man" is much more exhaustive than that of "woman" – with 25 examples for men, compared to only five for women.  But Oxford said that as its dictionary is based on "evidence of actual usage, entries for two different words will only be perfectly parallel if the words are genuinely used in a perfectly parallel way."

In today's culture, Oxford said, the words man and woman are not used in identical ways. “For instance, sense four of ‘man’ is ‘a figure or token used in playing a board game’, but that meaning is not evidenced for woman,” said Martin.  “Statistical analysis of large digital text databases shows that there are significant differences in how the words man and woman are used. People speak of a ‘man about town’ but rarely of a ‘woman about town’; of a ‘ladies’ man’ but not a ‘gentlemen’s lady’; of ‘womanly’ curves and wiles, but ‘manly’ handshakes and jawlines.”

Martin said that as the usage of English speakers changes over time, the dictionary would change to reflect the new lexical terrain.  Oxford added that dictionary staff “are taking the points raised in the petition very seriously … As ever, our dictionaries strive to reflect, rather than dictate, language so any changes will be made on that basis.”

In other words, Maria Beatrice Giovanardi and her petitioners should focus on changing the culture--  instead of manipulating the mirror the reflects it.