Merriam-Webster has revealed that 2017’s word of the year is Feminism. Honestly, with all the amazing things women have been doing this year, it makes sense that there was a 70-percent increase in lookups for the word.
We had women marching on Washington in January, with sister demonstrations all over the world in places like Boston, New York, London and Paris, in response to President Trump’s inauguration on Jan.21. Women all over the world felt the need to march for their rights as a man who was against reproductive rights, immigration and civil rights took office.
Feminism also popped up in fashion with the word being displayed on feminism tees during Dior’s spring couture collection. Interest in the dictionary definition of feminism was also driven by entertainment this year: we saw increased lookups after the release of both Hulu’s series The Handmaid’s Tale and the film Wonder Woman.
In late February, White House advisor Kellyanne Conway told the Conservative Political Action Conference that it was hard for her to call herself a feminist “because it seems to be very anti-male and very pro-abortion in this context.”
Recently, feminism has been a popular search topic in response to the accounts of sexual assault and harassment in the news. 2017 has been a year where people have come forward using the #MeToo hashtag on social media to share their stores of the abuse they’ve faced.
The news of powerful men in the entertainment industry like Harvey Weinstein, Woody Allen, and R.Kelly has sparked a growing interest in what it means to believe in the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes, as well as the organized activity in support of women’s rights.
When a word has become increasingly popular in language, it truly showcases where the world’s mindset is. Women’s Rights has always been an issue that has been fought for, but with this rise in people using their platform to promote feminism, will we see even more people believing in feminism?
