Time asks its readers if it should ban the word feminist

The second-most read story on Time magazine's web site this morning—after a glowing exposé on Kim Kardashian's butt, of course—is about the magazine's fourth annual poll to banish a word from its lexicon.

While some of the choices are logical—I could definitely go through my life without ever hearing the word literally again—others are... curious.

Like the inclusion of the word feminist.

Here's the magazine's "rationale" for the inclusion of the term.

feminist: You have nothing against feminism itself, but when did it become a thing that every celebrity had to state their position on whether this word applies to them, like some politician declaring a party? Let’s stick to the issues and quit throwing this label around like ticker tape at a Susan B. Anthony parade.

Oh, I get it. It's not that Time is against feminism; its staffers would just like all those whiny women to stop talking about it so damn much. (Either that or the magazine simply wanted a little more clickbait today, you know, in addition to that objectifying story about a woman's ass.)

It's pretty sad that hearing about feminism's struggle for equality, dignity, and basic human rights is so bothersome that a mainstream news magazine doesn't want to even describe its proponents any longer.

Honestly, I don't understand what is bad about identifying as a feminist. What is the problem with thinking women are human beings? If that's wrong, I do not want to be right.

Let's also acknowledge that most of the words they suggest for banishment—words like bae, basic, obvi, and turnt—are primarily used by young women and women of colour, so TIME's list comes off as tone-policing, discriminatory, and a little racist.

Edit: Of course Time published a piece in March stating that the "banning words has proved to be a fairly futile pursuit". Of course both of these articles were penned by the same author. (Thanks to Stanley for the link.)

One last comment to whomever is suggesting what words should be banned: "I can't even", "om nom nom nom", "said no one ever", "sorry not sorry".

These are what are known as phrases, i.e. strings of words. I'm fairly certain this is a concept one would have to learn before getting a job with a major news publication.

Love from a sorry not sorry feminist who... I can't even this morning.