Note to self: The dictionary doesn't actually know everything. Thanks to one faithfully feminist Twitter user, the world is now aware of a major—and frankly, offensive—blunder made by our go-to English language knowledge source, Merriam-Webster.
Writer Ali Steele recently pointed out on via the social platform that the famous dictionary publisher's example sentence for the word "femininity" is a little, uh, outdated. Ali posted a tweet with a screenshot of the entry, which read, "She managed to become a CEO without sacrificing her femininity." The implication of the statement is that a woman who is a CEO may have to choose between her career and femininity—something that we can't exactly picture the dictionary saying about a man. Hey, Merriam, it's 2016.
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Thankfully, this story has a happy ending. Merriam-Webster saw Ali's tweet and swiftly took action to correct their mistake.
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They even offered a gracious apology to her and the Twitterverse at large for their error:
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That's more like it. Meanwhile, Ali is now our feminist hero and living proof that speaking out about injustice can yield some pretty sweet results.
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