‘Essex girl’ removed from dictionary after campaigners claim term is offensive
Written by News on 05/12/2020
The term “Essex girl” has been removed from the dictionary after a long-standing campaign by women from the county.
Oxford University Press (OUP) previously defined “Essex girl” as: “A name used especially in jokes to refer to a type of young woman who is not intelligent, dresses badly, talks in a loud and ugly way and is very willing to have sex.”
But it has agreed to remove the term from the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, which is used to teach foreign language students English, after campaign group The Essex Girls Liberation Front branded it “very offensive”.
The term will stay in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), however, because its publishers claim it is a “historical dictionary”, in which “nothing is ever taken out”.
The OED’s definition acknowledges the stereotype as “derogatory” and “contemptuous”, saying it is used to describe a “type of young woman, supposedly found in and around Essex, and variously characterised as unintelligent, promiscuous and materialistic”.
Author Syd Moore started the campaign after referencing the term at an International Women’s Day conference.
She told The Times: “Women from the Congo had heard of the Essex girl. I thought ‘it’s time to get rid of this once and for all’.”
Since then, other campaigns have emerged to challenge negative stereotypes of the county.
One – Snapping the Stiletto – was given a £200,000 lottery grant – and was supported by the likes of model Penny Lancaster, from Chelmsford, and Dame Helen Mirren, born in Southend-on-Sea.
The county’s tourist board has also weighed in on the debate, releasing a publicity video entitled “This is Essex”, to help the cause.
Campaigners say reality TV show The Only Way Is Essex has not been helpful in their fight.
But they claim it should be allowed to continue providing viewers know it is not representative of everyone who lives there.
TOWIE star Gemma Collins previously told Sky News she is against the use of the term.
She said: “I think the dictionary should be paying everyone in Essex compensation.
“We have evolved over the years. It is very derogatory what has been said about us. And it does need to be changed.”
(c) Sky News 2020: ‘Essex girl’ removed from dictionary after campaigners claim term is offensive
