The Scourge of the Feminist Word Police

The Scourge of the Feminist Word Police: "The Scourge of the Feminist Word Police
Pajamas Media ^ | May 18, 2011 | Jacob Laskin

Posted on Wednesday, May 18, 2011 8:16:48 AM by Kaslin

How feminist writer Kate Swift created her own Newspeak Dictionary and helped ruin everyday English.

If you’ve ever felt a twinge of anxiety at hearing someone use “humankind” as a substitute for mankind, or if you’ve winced at the proliferation of the politically correct suffix “person” — as in “chairperson,” or “policeperson” — when the more traditional “man” would be perfectly suitable, chances are you’ve suffered from the corrupting linguistic legacy of feminist writer Kate Swift. Swift, who died last week at 87, was one of a squadron of feminist language police whose crusade to remake language to suit their political agendas has wreaked havoc on everyday English.

Feminists had tried to reform language long before Swift and her fellow word scolds arrived on the scene. In 1949, feminist icon Simone de Beauvoir charged that language was “inherited from a masculine society and contains many male prejudices.” She advised that “women have to steal the instrument” and “use it for their own good.”

Swift and her co-author, Casey Miller, attempted"