The evolving language
It is clear that language in essence is not sexist, but there is sexism in the more pragmatic aspects of language, those that relate language to social use. Fortunately, the language evolves at a different rate than what is recorded in the dictionaries, even the most descriptive and up-to-date ones, otherwise it would be a very bad sign. That’s why it’s important to update and review them frequently.
Balance without falling into the politically correct
It is important to take into account the gender perspective and review didactics and ways of doing things, but without falling into the trap of being politically correct. It is not easy to find the balance between one thing and the other because, immediately, some jump with the label of wokism. The general idea of the woke concept is that social movements have slowed down and now denouncing any discrimination is wokism; a neologism that, beyond what I can say, is exhausting, that since it is used on the networks it even loses its meaning.
Dictionaries and sexism
Today, I would say that the most flagrant anti-gal we have in the dictionaries is the word “cuguç”, which used to mean the “husband of the adulterous woman”. There is some dictionary that, wisely, already marks it as “anciently”, but there really shouldn’t be any need to maintain this form that is dragged from Fabra’s General Dictionary of the Catalan Language and beyond. Fabra already said it in an example: “It’s better to be jealous than greedy”. Effectively, dictionaries are a reflection of the sexist society and the woman is always the one who deceives in the definitions and examples.
The necessary changes
Nowadays, the reference dictionaries still keep some of these pearls, which, frankly, do not add anything even if they mark it as old. Wake up, beauties! That the Catalan-Valencian-Balearic Dictionary already said so, that all this was old. Let’s overcome it and dare to eliminate it. Get “cuguç”, “cuguçós”, “cornell” and “cornella” out of the dictionaries! We already have the entries of “banyut”, “banyuda” or “cuckold”, “cuckold” as the most up-to-date to define this concept, although considering the variety of sex-affective relationships that exist today, it can be said that it is a concept that has become outdated, today. As old as the saying “to be front-loaded or to have a slip”, live the euphemisms!
The positive changes
On the other hand, we can already see that dictionaries are evolving and adapting to social changes, not everything is negative. There are more and more gender-unknown entries (for example, to define “husband” and “wife”) and recently a new meaning of “female” was added to the normative dictionary, with the meaning of “Woman, especially of the contemporary era, signified by its intellectual, artistic or civic contribution”. But the icing on the cake, the best example that has ever been invented, can be found in the Diccionari Essencial de la Llengua Catalana, which has more up-to-date lexicographic criteria. It can be seen with the example of the “slobbery” entry: “Sit next to an old slobbery”. Well yes, adapting to changes also means that.
The power of language
We hope that soon the most up-to-date lexicographic dictionaries will incorporate the expressions “to have ovaries or to be up to the ovaries”. One more push, and soon we will have the gentleman or the non-binary adjective. And now lovers of neologism woke you will say “so what? With this, are we already saved from discrimination?” Well, no, but as Judith Butler said in her last essay What World Is This?, we must not underestimate the “power of small actions”. Language has a very powerful symbolic role and is a symptom of a living language, in constant movement. Many fans of the woke label voted for “uncle, aunt” to enter the normative dictionary and I didn’t tell you that it’s not necessary, that you can use words that don’t appear in dictionaries and it doesn’t mean that they’re not correct. Everything is relative, but everyone knows that language has great symbolic power to communicate, right? wake up
