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London museum apologizes after using word ‘womxn’ instead of ‘women’ in effort to be ‘inclusive’
The Wellcome Collection museum in London has been forced to apologize after its efforts to be ‘inclusive’ by using the word ‘womxn’ instead of ‘women’ backfired and caused outrage on social media.
In promotional material for a four-day programme which aims to “challenge archives, change narratives and amplify new voices,” the museum said it wanted to beginning a conversation about “how womxn can challenge existing archives”.
The choice of word was intended to be inclusive — but to who? According to a tiny fraction of society, it appears that the word “women” is seen as exclusively referring to white, straight and cisgender women. In other words it is (apparently) racist and transphobic.
The word ‘womxn’ seems to be a spin-off from the word ‘womyn’ which was adopted by some feminists during the 1970s women’s movement. Unfortunately for the Wellcome Collection, however, today’s women (and men — or is it mxn?) were not too pleased with the new iteration of the word — and they let the museum know about it on Twitter.
Absolute 100% instablock and an actual hex for anyone using “womxn” in my vicinity.
— Juliet (@Jsoosty) October 10, 2018
Nobody outside of a very narrow circle of narcissists and misogynists will even begin to understand what you mean by "womxn." The word woman doesn't need to be edited or to apologise for itself. Please compare with your approach to speaking about men and amend.
— Spook Spookfare
