The good word

The Merriam Webster has declared ‘feminism’ the word of the year on the basis of the number of people who looked it up on the online dictionary.

Considering that the smartphone, the TV remote and the nuclear button of the world’s most powerful nation is in the hands of a leader who cannot be bothered to spell honour (“honer”) right — fairly “unpresidented”, we must say — it has to be asked: What, in the name of covfefe, is this quaint ritual of pronouncing a “word of the year”? Calm down, says the Merriam Webster dictionary, which has trolled US president Donald Trump through the year for his jabs at garbling the English language. Calm down, it says, and look back a little in anger. “Feminism” is what stares back at you. The Merriam Webster has declared it the word of the year on the basis of the number of people who looked it up on the online dictionary — a 70 per cent jump since 2016.

That is no surprise, given the Harvey Weinstein-sized hole in the news cycle and the #MeToo movement that swept across America and other countries. That is no surprise, given the number of women who went on to collaborate to create lists of predators (#HimToo) in academia, media and cinema. It is also no surprise that close on the heels of “feminism” is “complicit” — a word most women use to describe establishments that perpetuate sexism, and which was hurled at Ivanka Trump, much to her bewilderment. Merriam Webster points out the other news events that led to a spike in the collective curiosity about “feminism”: The Women’s March against Trump in January, counsellor to US President, Kelyanne Conway — she of the alternative facts fame — saying she didn’t believe in the anti-male, pro-abortion version of feminism, the release of Wonder Woman and The Handmaid’s Tale.

In a year that powerful, white men lost their positions and jobs when called to account for sexual assault, “feminism” was a weapon in women’s arsenal, an ally in a heady time. What, then, is feminism? “The theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes” and “organised activity on behalf of women’s rights and interests,” says Merriam Webster. Would Trump, accused of sexually assaulting several women and on record boasting about grabbing their genitals, know how to spell that?