One of my first articles as a part-time staff writer for National Review was a short essay about the (surprisingly enjoyable) process of writing two theses for my undergraduate degree. Now, I’m excited to say that I’ve submitted my master’s linguistics thesis on “gender-inclusive language.” Woohoo! As I finish up other work toward my degree, I wanted to share a brief National Review–related anecdote from the course of researching my master’s thesis.
When working on my chapter about the linguistic and philosophical precursors to what we now call “gender-inclusive language,” I read the 1995 article “Womyn: The Evidence,” by linguist Sol Steinmetz, which catalogues examples of the deliberate spelling variation appearing in print. Although a decent chunk of the sources are from feminist publications, “womyn” was also found in the pages of familiar papers like the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the Washington Post. One reference that Steinmetz provides, however, caught my eye:
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