Nintendo fires treehouse member Alison Rapp

[Zkuq]

the_dark_lewd said:

Zkuq said:

This is incorrect. Or, to put it more accurately, correct only in theory. In practice, feminism often seems to be exactly what the name suggests (which is pretty ironic, considering how eagerly a lot of feminists jump on little things such as choice of words). I know feminism should be about equality, but practice often seems different. I'm all for equality though, just not in the form of real-life feminism.

I never fail to be amused how people misunderstand this so badly. THIS IS NOT HOW LANGUAGE WORKS. 

Language is ultimately defined by usage. Not by dictionaries. Dictionary editors will even agree with this! Think about it. If dictionaries defined words (rather than describes usage), why would words change over time? And why would you have multiple definitions for words in many dictionaries? You wouldn't.

Feminist just doesn't mean a belief in equality. When you poll the population, you see this incredibly clearly. Most people believe in equality of the sexes but only a tiny percentage identify as feminists. This is how words are ultimately defined. The dictionaries WILL eventually change the definition to match this. They inevitably always do. They probably just haven't yet because they're scared of the backlash.

Uh, OK. I somewhat suggested what you're saying, so not sure why you feel the need to tell me this. I pretty much said that it feels like feminism means what the name suggests instead of what feminists claim (which seems to be the 'official' definition). Which basically means a contradiction between the dictionary definition and actual usage.

Also, the question is whether dictionaries will change to match the language, or whether people will change to match the definition of feminism first. It could go either way, especially when you consider how big of a movement feminism has become (or maybe I'm just seeing more of it, who knows).