propinquitine: John, looking up while in a cell, from the lovely blue-lit episode Aurora. (Default)
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.)

Profile

propinquitine: John, looking up while in a cell, from the lovely blue-lit episode Aurora. (Default)
propinquitine

March 2013

S M T W T F S
     12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31      

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jun. 12th, 2025 12:25 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios