language

Aussie Dictionary Redefines Misogyny to Include Male Politician

Photo: Olivier Douliery/Pool/Corbis

After Australian prime minister Julia Gillard publicly excoriated center-right opposition leader Tony Abbott for his history of misogynist speech, critics told her she didn’t understand the meaning of the word misogyny. Textbook woman-discrediting move. But in response, the best dictionary in Australia has updated its definition of the word misogyny to reflect its contemporary usage, the Guardian reports. That includes “entrenched prejudice against women,” like Gillard described, and not just “pathological hatred.” “Perhaps as dictionary editors we should have noticed this before it was so rudely thrust in front of us as something that we’d overlooked,” Macquarie Dictionary editor Sue Butler told the AP. Now the opposition says that changing the definition of misogyny “undermines Macquarie Dictionary in its entirety” — ugh, prescriptivists — and maintains that calling Abbott a misogynist was a “vicious personal smear.” This from the guy whose campaign called Gillard a “witch.” 

Aussie Dictionary Redefines Misogyny