![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Merriam-Webster announced some of its new additions to the dictionary a few days ago. Included in the 100 new entries is the term "fanboy", defined as "a boy who is an enthusiastic devotee (as of comics or movies)".
Yup, gender-specific, with no complementary definition for "fangirl". (Even more frustratingly, searching for "fangirl" yields no results and a comment, "Suggestion for fangirl: fragile". No, Merriam effing Webster, I did not mean "fragile"; I was searching for a term to describe myself in your dictionary, and 'fragile' doesn't apply.)
Yeah, okay, society's more comfortable with the concept of fanboys, and dictionaries are just barometers of how people-in-general use words, and wide-spread acceptance of girls as geeks/fans/interesting people still has a long way to go, but: screw that. If you're adding "webinar" to your Hallowed Tome of Meaning, you can exercise a little proactive gender parity, too.
(Also interesting to note: that WSJ article is accompanied by a photo of not one but two fangirls, and mentions the yet-to-be-released film Fanboys, whose big-name star is (fangirl) Kristen Bell. My enthusiastic devotion, let me show you it.)
Yup, gender-specific, with no complementary definition for "fangirl". (Even more frustratingly, searching for "fangirl" yields no results and a comment, "Suggestion for fangirl: fragile". No, Merriam effing Webster, I did not mean "fragile"; I was searching for a term to describe myself in your dictionary, and 'fragile' doesn't apply.)
Yeah, okay, society's more comfortable with the concept of fanboys, and dictionaries are just barometers of how people-in-general use words, and wide-spread acceptance of girls as geeks/fans/interesting people still has a long way to go, but: screw that. If you're adding "webinar" to your Hallowed Tome of Meaning, you can exercise a little proactive gender parity, too.
(Also interesting to note: that WSJ article is accompanied by a photo of not one but two fangirls, and mentions the yet-to-be-released film Fanboys, whose big-name star is (fangirl) Kristen Bell. My enthusiastic devotion, let me show you it.)
