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Why *womxn*?
Ignorant cis white transphobes losing their shit on an LGBTQ WoC acct about this.
There's a complex history surrounding the word "woman" that these transphobes who claim to be feminists don't even know. It's a lot to get into on twitter but a short thread:
Ignorant cis white transphobes losing their shit on an LGBTQ WoC acct about this.
There's a complex history surrounding the word "woman" that these transphobes who claim to be feminists don't even know. It's a lot to get into on twitter but a short thread:
“In America, white racist ideology has always allowed white women 2 assume the word woman is synonymous with yt woman, 4 women of other races r always perceived as Others, as de-humanized beings who do not fall under the heading woman.” - Ain't I a Woman? Black women & feminism
In the 70's the word *womyn* was a feminist spelling of women (with womon as the singular form) & first appeared in print in 1976 referring to the first Michigan Womyn's Music Festival. These are all easily sought out facts btw. It's not as if the fauxminists couldn't google.
The words *womyn & wimmin* were commonly used in feminist circles for a long time, both as a rejection of the English-only etymology of 'woman' from Old English wifmon (wife of a man). You'd think that actual feminists would know this right? You'd b correct. We do. So when you...
see transphobes who claim to be feminists having absolute conniption fits over the word "woman", us intersectional feminists are sitting over here like:
"You wot m8s?"
So feminism rolls ever forward. Feminists evolve (some of us at least). It becomes more important than...
"You wot m8s?"So feminism rolls ever forward. Feminists evolve (some of us at least). It becomes more important than...
ever for feminists to ensure that trans women & non-binary folks are explicitly included in feminism because transphobes are out of control. The word *womxn* comes next. Derived from *womyn* to broaden the scope of womanhood to better include trans & non-binary femmes & is also..
still used by MANY cis feminists (such as the one's running a certain LGBTQ+ WoC account that is currently being bombarded with hate for writing a tweet about womxn). It's a fricken universally used word folks. It's not offensive at all when know the history. This is just a
very limited intro to "how feminists use words in feminist ways" becuz as I said, there's too much detail 2 go into on twitter. Needless 2 say, the transphobes & very upset men folks & not so feminist cis women who go off about this have likely never read a book on feminism. 
For those wondering why the "x" was used in *womxn*
I can't speak the exact reason but there a couple of reasonable explanations I've heard spoken often.
1) x = neutral
2) x as in Malcom X = refusal of slave owners names. (Refer back to my tweet about white *women*)
I can't speak the exact reason but there a couple of reasonable explanations I've heard spoken often.
1) x = neutral
2) x as in Malcom X = refusal of slave owners names. (Refer back to my tweet about white *women*)
Reminder: As I stated, feminism, the history of feminism & it's progression over the decades from 1st wave, to 2nd wave etc... & beyond the shit show of *white feminism* into intersectional feminism is COMPLEX & there's a lot to read so this is an extremely simplified thread.
Folks, I mentioned this was a short intro to this topic cuz its way more complex. Those commenting re: "wifman". At the time (70's) womyn was used, that was the definition they were working with. Yes, since then, it has been shown that it might not have been 100% accurate. That..
really isn't the most important part of this thread. Again, at the time, the feminists were working with "wifman = wifeman" & *woMAN* not centering women, so feminists started using *wombyn & wimmin* instead. Hope this helps reduced the need to point that out. Thanks all!
One final point, because it's come up a couple of times. Also, there's a hashtag #womxn that any folks interested in can browse thru to see how it's used in intersectional feminist circles & by whom to help clarify further. https://twitter.com/BellaRizinti/status/1258519661374607360
