The #MeToo Moment: The Year in Gender

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/30/us/the-metoo-moment-the-year-in-gender.html

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Most years around this time, I take a pilgrimage to whatever U.S. city has the extremely nerdy and equally fantastic honor of hosting the annual “Word of the Year” competition, hosted by the American Dialect Society. If wordsmiths had a Super Bowl, this event would be it — where the nation’s most well-regarded grammarians, etymologists and language historians gather to nominate, and then debate, the words, hashtags and phrases that best capture the ethos of the past year.

Past “Words of the Year” have included “Not!” (a “Wayne’s World” classic) in 1992, to “chad,” the hanging bits of paper that almost swayed the 2000 presidential election. More recently, they have highlighted #blacklivesmatter, the 2014 winner (hotly debated with regard to whether a hashtag could be an actual word), “they,” the singular, gender-neutral pronoun, which won the prize in 2015, and “dumpster fire,” defined as “an exceedingly disastrous or chaotic situation,” which took the prize in 2016.

(Runners-up have included “lumbersexual,” a fashionably rugged man who adopts the dress and facial hair of a lumberjack, “manspreading,” when a man spreads his legs on public transportation, blocking other seats, and “narcisstick,” a pejorative term for the selfie stick.)

This year, #MeToo seems like a shoo-in as linguists head into the nominating ceremony next week (which is, by the way, open to the public). As the phrase-then-hashtag that launched a movement, it would situate quite perfectly with the “Word of the Year” winners announced by other linguistic institutions this month: “feminism” from Merriam Webster and “complicit” from Dictionary.com.

Taken together, complicity, feminism and the technological boost of a hashtag seem to have made for a perfect storm and a cultural awakening at once.

As we head into 2018, we’ll continue to help you continue to navigate that storm. In the meantime, here are a few of our favorite Times stories from the past year.

The ‘Click’ Moment: How the Weinstein Scandal Unleashed a TsunamiIn 1991, women wore “I Believe Anita” buttons. Now they post #metoo. Social media, famous accusers and generational change add up to a profound shift.

How to Get Away With Murder in Small-Town IndiaIn her last days in India, then-South Asia bureau chief Ellen Barry wrestles with a murder covered up in plain sight, and what she is leaving behind.

The Long, Lonely Road of Chelsea ManningHer disclosure of classified documents in 2010 ushered in the age of leaks. Now, freed from prison, she talks about why she did it, and the isolation that followed.

In Angela Merkel, German Women Find Symbol, but Not SaviorThe highest office in the land has been held by a woman for 12 years. It’s all the other offices that still pose a problem for women in Germany.

‘Ladies First’: Saudi Arabia’s Female CandidatesIn Saudi Arabia, women have been recently granted the right to vote and to run in local elections.

How to Raise a Feminist SonWe raise our girls to fight stereotypes and pursue their dreams, but we don’t do the same for our boys.

When a Student Says, ‘I’m Not a Boy or a Girl’Some transgender kids are driving their schools to adopt more inclusive teaching methods.

How Tough Is It to Change a Culture of Harassment? Ask Women at Ford.Decades after Ford tried to tackle sexual misconduct at two Chicago plants, continued abuse raises questions about the possibility of change.

Should Women Make Their Own Pop Music Canon?Our critic-at-large listened to only female singers all summer. Here’s what he learned.

The Culture Is Changing, With Feminist CheeseAll across America, cheese making is a great way to trot away from the male herd.

As always, you can sign up here to receive future installments of this newsletter, and tell us what you think at nytgender@nytimes.com. See you in 2018!