Womxn andwomyn arealternative political spellings of the English wordwoman, used by somefeminists.[1][2] There are other spellings, includingwomban (a reference to thewomb or uterus) orwomon (singular), andwombyn orwimmin (plural). Some writers who use such alternative spellings, avoiding thesuffix"-man" or"-men", see them as an expression of female independence and a repudiation of traditions that define women by reference toa male norm.[3][4]
These re-spellings existed alongside the use ofherstory, a feminist re-examination and re-telling of history.
TheOxford English Dictionary (OED) defineswomyn as "in feminist use: women."[5]
The OED addedwomxn in 2021, and defines it as "adopted by some as a more inclusive alternative to womyn, which is perceived as marginalizing certain groups, especially ethnic minority and transgender women.".[6]Dictionary.com addedwomxn to its dictionary in 2019 with the definition "used, especially inintersectional feminism, as an alternative spelling to avoid the suggestion ofsexism perceived in the sequences m-a-n and m-e-n, and to be inclusive oftrans andnonbinary people."[7][8]
See also:
The termswomyn andwomxn have been criticised for being unnecessary or confusingneologisms, due to the uncommonness ofmxn to describemen.[9][10][11]
The wordwomyn has been criticised bytransgender people[12][13] due to its usage in trans-exclusionaryradical feminist circles which excludetrans women from identifying into the category of "woman", particularly the termwomyn-born womyn.[12][14] The termwombyn was also particularly criticized by trans advocates since it implies that a woman must have a womb to be a woman.[15]
Some trans-inclusionary feminists argue in favor of the wordwomxn as being more inclusive oftransgender women,non-binary people, andintersex women,[16][11][17][18] while other trans-inclusionary feminists criticize the termwomxn for the implication that trans women are notwomen but are a separate category, or for the implication that non-binary people are women.[19][20][21] Jennie Kermode, chair ofTrans Media Watch, stated in 2018 that the organization would not use the termwomxn, considering thatwomen already includes trans women.[22]
The wordwoman is derived from theOld English wordwīfmann ('woman-person'), which is formed fromwīf (the source ofwife), then meaning 'woman', andmann (the source ofman), then meaning 'person, human', originally without connotations of gender.[23][24]Man took on its additional masculine meaning in theLate Middle English period, replacing the now-obsolete wordwer.[25] This has created the present situation withman bearing a dual meaning—either masculine or nonspecific.[26]
Old English had a system ofgrammatical gender, whereby everynoun was treated as either masculine, feminine or neuter, similar to modern German. In Old English sources, the wordman was grammatically masculine but gender-neutral in meaning. One of its meanings was similar to themodern English usage of "one" as a gender-neutralindefinite pronoun (compare withmankind (man +kind), which means the human race, and Germanman, which has retained the indefinite pronoun meaning to the modern day).[27] The wordswer andwīf were used, when necessary, to specify a man or woman, respectively. Combining them intowerman orwīfman expressed the concept of "any man" or "any woman".[28][29] Some feminist writers have suggested that this more symmetrical usage reflected more egalitarian notions of gender at the time.[4]
The termwimmin was considered byGeorge P. Krapp (1872–1934), an American scholar of English, to beeye dialect, the literary technique of using nonstandard spelling that implies a pronunciation of the given word that is actually standard. The spelling indicates that the character's speech overall isdialectal, foreign, or uneducated.[30][31] This form of nonstandard spelling differs from others in that a difference in spelling does not indicate a difference in pronunciation of a word. That is, it is dialect to the eye rather than to the ear.[32] It suggests that a character "would use a vulgar pronunciation if there were one" and "is at the level of ignorance where one misspells in this fashion, hence mispronounces as well."[33]
The wordwomyn appeared as anOlder Scots spelling ofwoman[34] in theScots poetry ofJames Hogg. The wordwimmin appeared in 19th-century renderings ofBlack American English, without any feminist significance.[35]
Second-wave feminism developed severalalternative political spellings of the wordwoman, especiallywomyn.[1] Keridwen Luis, a sociologist atBrandeis University, states that feminists have experimented for decades to devise a suitable alternative for the term identifying the female gender. Such terms have includedwimmin (in the 1990s), based upon the original Old English term, andwomyn (since at least 1975).[36][37][38][3]
The usage of "womyn" as a feminist spelling ofwomen (withwomon as the singular form) first appeared in print in 1976 referring to the firstMichigan Womyn's Music Festival.[39] This is just after the founding of theMountain Moving Coffeehouse for Womyn and Children, alesbian feminist social event centred aroundwomen's music. Both the annual "MichFest" and the weeklycoffeehouse operated awomyn-born womyn (cisgender women-only) policy.[12]Womyn's land was another usage of the term, associated withseparatist feminism.[40][41]
When 1970sfeminism in Australia was at its peak, theWimmins Circus, a feminist circus troupe which combinedcircus skills, comedy, and music in their performances, was established inMelbourne in 1979.[42]
Z. Budapest promoted the use of the wordwimmin (singularwomon) in the 1970s as part of herDianic Wicca movement, which claims that present-daypatriarchy represents a fall from a matriarchalgolden age.[43]
Millie Tant, a fictional character in the British satirical comicViz, often used the termwimmin when discussing women's rights.[44]
In the mid 2010s,fourth-wave feminism focused onintersectionality and debated whether to usewomxn as a term more inclusive of trans women, or whether to avoidwomxn because it implied trans women are not women.
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In 2017, theWomxn's March on Seattle chose to use the term "womxn" to promote the march. Elizabeth Hunter-Keller, the event's communications chair, toldThe New York Times that they chose it based upon the recommendation of a core organizer, who was a nonbinary person, and to reflect the organizing group's diversity.[37] Nita Harker, a sociologist and organizer of the march praised the termwomxn for its ambiguity in pronunciation, saying that it forces users to "stop and think".[36]The Boston Globe, reporting on the march, calledwomxn term "a powerful, increasingly popular label, encompassing a broader range of gender identities than 'woman'—or even older feminist terms such as 'womyn' ... a nontraditional spelling for people whose gender identity doesn’t fit in the traditional boxes".[36]
In January 2018,Portland held the Indigenous Womxn's March, dedicated tomissing and murdered indigenous girls, women, and transgender people.[45][46]
In 2018, student university groups in the US and UK usedwomxn in communications, such as advertising for "Womxn’s Basketball Session" and "Womxn of Color Network".[47][48]
In 2018, theWellcome Collection, a museum and library in London, made an announcement throughTwitter using the termwomxn to demonstrate their goal of including diverse perspectives; after complaints from hundreds of followers, the museum later apologized and removed the term from its website.[37][49][50]Labour Party politicianJess Phillips responded to the incident by saying, "I've never met a trans woman who was offended by the word woman being used, so I'm not sure why this keeps happening".[22] Clara Bradbury-Rance ofKing's College London conjectured that the push-back was because the use of the term was seen as too simplistic and a "fix-all".[22]
In a 2019 Styles article published inThe New York Times, journalist Breena Kerr stated that whilewomxn was difficult to pronounce, it was "perhaps the most inclusive word yet".[37]
On 1 March 2021, thestreaming platformTwitch used the termwomxn to promote events celebratingWomen's History Month. The event was announced through Twitter, which led to immediate backlash from various users who considered the termtransphobic for implying that trans women are notwomen but a separate category (womxn). Twitch removed the tweet and apologised, stating that they wanted to use the word to acknowledge the shortcomings of gender-binary language and that they would use the term "women" moving forward.[19][20]
Produced by RealTime for the Australia Council
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