Australia’s Macquarie Dictionary has expanded the definition of misogyny following Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s recent speech calling her conservative rival, Tony Abbot, a “misogynist” for suggesting that she wouldn’t know much about motherhood, not being a mother herself.
Whereas misogyny used to simply mean hatred of women, the definition now includes “entrenched prejudice” concerning women, their roles, opinions, etc. This means that a loving husband and father who thinks, for example, that women shouldn’t be in combat, is a misogynist (according to the dictionary). Basically, anyone who disagrees with feminists is smeared as a misogynist, and I’m sure that’s exactly the intent of the change.
The Associated Press reports that Australia’s Macquarie Dictionary has updated its definition of the word “misogyny” after Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard gave a take-no-prisoners lecturing of opposition leader Tony Abbott about his anti-female ways. (h/t Newser)
Gillard included several mentions of Abbot’s “misogyny” and “sexism” in the speech. The gone-viral Oct. 9 lambasting prompted word-keepers to take notice.
Macquarie Dictionary added “entrenched prejudice of women” to augment the established “hatred of women,” according to the BBC. The expanded definition will appear in the next edition, the Australian reported.
Macquarie Editor Sue Butler said Gillard’s remarks highlight how the term has evolved from a pathological loathing of the gender. “We decided that we had the basic definition, hatred of women, but that’s not how misogyny has been used for about the last 20, 30 years, particularly in feminist language,” she told ABC Radio. “Sexist does seem to be moving towards this description of surface features and misogynist applies to the underlying attitude.”
Maybe some Australian should put out one of those “how to speak Australian” ads that Fosters used to run. He could run that clip of her falling flat on her face, then as a laughing man appears on the screen, the narrator says “misogynist.”
American and British dictionaries have not adopted the change. Perhaps Australia’s publishing industry is even more female-dominated than the rest of the Anglosphere’s. Australia has long been known for some of the most radical of all feminists and gender benders, and I suspect it may be precisely because men have not traditionally worked in education or the humanities as much as in other English-speaking countries. Australia emerged at the dawn of the industrial age, so it may not have had the opportunity to develop the kind of conservative, male-guided institutions that would moderate the excesses of feminism.
However, it would be interesting to hear Australians’ opinions on this. Frankly, Gillard strikes me as a clownish politician, prone to embarrassing mishaps, but she seems fairly popular in Australia itself.
