Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Fminis*, Femenis* (for Feminist, Feminism)

March is National Women's History Month and the one in which six more states held caucuses or primaries for the 2008 presidential election. In honor of the history-making campaigns this year by both a woman and a black man, let's pause to remember Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American to run on a major party ticket in 1972, and Victoria Woodhull, who represented the "Free Love" platform exactly one hundred years before that. OhioLINK gives us several typo candidates for feminist* and feminism, including Fminis* (two), Feminisn (one), Femenist* (six), and Femenism (four)—the latter two initially striking me as witty, if unwitting, bids for inclusion. Upon further inspection, it seems as though a few of them actually were "ment" to be puns. (Photograph of Shirley Chisholm from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

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