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Forgive me for making this post here, but I cannot think of a better place.

I read today that there is a petition against the OUP concerning some of the words used in their lexicons - whose meanings comprise [historically aged] descriptions of women.

Dictionary entries "such as 'bitch, besom, piece, bit, mare, baggage, wench, petticoat' are being challenged.

'Signatories are calling on OUP to “eliminate all phrases and definitions that discriminate against and patronise women and/or connote men’s ownership of women”, to “enlarge the dictionary’s entry for ‘woman’”, and to “include examples representative of minorities, for example, a transgender woman, a lesbian woman, etc'

I can think of a number of reasons to be horrified by this trend of thought, not one of them being that I reserve the right to call a woman a 'baggage' etc., because I don't. But I want access, knowledge and understanding of the words, in context.

I really find this kind of thing disturbing and a little frightening, being a lover of language, whether good, bad or ugly.

There, said it.

Love to hear your thoughts.

Totally agree.

Thank you Nelson

Nothing wrong at all with bringing in new terms and phrases, but there need not be an attempt to somehow sterilise all the history that has gone before.

Perhaps an addition of 'Derogatory' and/or 'Archaic' with some old stuff, especially for those who may be new to the language.

And before anyone asks, I am male.

The horrendous language police. Yes, agree with mamya, "derog" (certainly) and "archaic" (probably) should be added, but language is language.
If this happens, whatever next?
I have two X chromosomes and have never had the least inclination to do or be anything else. And I am ashamed of those who thought leaving words they don't like out of the dictionary a good idea.

Newspeak. Is Orwell allowed in classrooms anymore?
Next, re-education camps.
It's not just language. History is being rewritten; art is destroyed, or at least removed from public view.
The little fascists are everywhere.

Sounds like bad news for the 'Rechargeable Scrubber' I saw on sale today (in a hardware shop, I should probably add).

Seriously, though, the panoply of English literature provides a unique chronicle of oppression and prejudice through the ages, and any retrospective attempt to either sanitise it or to deliberately render it incomprehensible to a modern audience seems woefully misguided.

Thank you for your sympathetic responses. Perhaps there are others on this site who would disagree - I'd love them, if there are any, to give their alternative views.

Serious dictionaries give words, idioms or usages that none of us politeniks would use in our own everyday language.

A treasure of language surely is that it shines a light on the mores of past times/places and for that it needs to be protected as a source, not whitewashed.

I worry that Oxford might be so cowed by the demands of students e.g. to take down statues, disallow certain texts and speakers that OUP might also be pressured into demands to Bowdlerise its own content.

Harrumph.

The very next day, Monday, there was a news report about our library (in BC) removing two magazines on the basis of one complaint by a known s**t-stirrer.
She didn't like the "American" content.