Australia Rewrites Dictionary Amid Gillard Row

Written By Unknown on Rabu, 17 Oktober 2012 | 20.18

An Australian dictionary is to update the meaning of misogyny, after the word was used by the country's prime minister in a blistering attack on her male rival.

It comes as Julia Gillard embarks on a three-day tour of India - the second day of which got off on the wrong foot when she took a tumble near Mahatma Gandhi's memorial at Rajghat.

She later told reporters she was "fine" and joked: "For men who get to wear flat shoes all day, every day - if you wear heels, they can get embedded in soft grass. When you pull your foot up, the shoe doesn't come."

Ms Gillard's attack on opposition leader Tony Abbott last week followed his attempt to move a motion to oust the House of Representatives speaker Peter Slipper, who is accused of sending crude and sexist text messages.

In a speech to parliament, Ms Gillard said: "If he wants to know what misogyny looks like in modern Australia, he doesn't need a motion in the House of Representatives; he needs a mirror."

"Misogyny, sexism - every day from this leader of this opposition," she added.

The prime minister's critics accused her of exaggeration, pointing to dictionary definitions of misogyny as a hatred of women.

It has led the Macquarie dictionary - regarded by many as the authoritative guide to the Australian meanings of words - to admit its definition is decades out of date.

Sue Butler, who edits the dictionary, said it would broaden the word's meaning to include prejudice against women.

"Since the 1980s, misogyny has come to be used as a synonym for sexism - a synonym with bite, but nevertheless with the meaning of entrenched prejudice against women rather than pathological hatred," she said.

"Perhaps as dictionary editors we should have noticed this before it was so rudely thrust in front of us as something that we'd overlooked."

Ms Butler said the decision to update the meaning of the word had prompted complaints.

Critics include Senator Fiona Nash, a member of Mr Abbott's coalition, who said: "It would seem more logical for the prime minister to refine her vocabulary than for the Macquarie dictionary to keep changing its definitions every time a politician mangles the English language."

Ms Gillard and Mr Abbott declined to comment on the move but it is not the first time they have clashed over issues of gender.

The prime minister said her rival had previously described abortion as "the easy way out" and questioned whether it was a bad thing for men to have more power than women in Australian society.

Speaking in parliament, Mr Abbott once told her: "If the prime minister wants to, politically speaking, make an honest woman of herself ..."

In Australia, the term "making an honest woman" traditionally refers to a man marrying a woman with whom he has had a sexual relationship.

Ms Gillard is the first prime minister to share the official residence with a common law partner, former hairdresser Tim Mathieson.


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