As some of us discussed in class on Friday, Time Magazine made the disastrous decision to include “feminism” as one of the choices for a reader poll of words that should be banned in 2015. (Article for reference here.) They’ve since apologized in a way that tried to shift blame on angry readers for not understanding that Time meant the pejorative version of the term (which only makes Time look worse for lack of taking responsibility) but the damage has already been done. (For reference, here’s a collection of highest liked responses to the poll on Time’s Facebook page.)

I read an interesting response to the way Time collects words for this annual poll not just this year, but in years past as well. In it, the author discusses how the poll has a history of including words that not only heavily imply the ingrained annoyance with terms stereotypically viewed as feminine. What’s more is that a good number of words from each year have their roots in black culture. This article and Time’s poll in general, then, serve as a culturally relevant examination of what we’ve been studying with regards to intersectionality.