Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language

by Amanda Montell

“With regard to feminist language change, I think there will be—as there already is—a backlash to this progress,” he told me, reasoning that the conservative right and its “far-right stepbrother” will remain steadfast in their fight to prevent the mainstreaming of feminist values in the English language. Szetela thinks Donald Trump’s presidency in particular has had a regressive effect that will take some years to reverse. “While in certain spheres, language that was once okay is being ousted as problematic, the most powerful person in the world is modeling sexism on a routine basis . . . [with] no consequences,” he wrote to me in December 2017. “Thus, the message to young men coming of age in the era of Trump is that this is a socially acceptable way of relating to, interacting with, and speaking about women.”