Why this feminist refuses to use the word ‘husband’

By Lydia Patrick via SWNS

A feminist has ditched the "sexist" word husband and opted to call her other half 'wer' - the old English word for 'man.'

Audra Fitzgerald, 26, decided to champion the word ‘wer’ instead of husband because that means ‘master of the house.'

With her background in linguistics, she believes 'spouse' sounds too generic.

Audra says she likes 'partner,' but it isn’t specific enough and noted that, "sometimes you have to be clear for legal reasons whether you’re married or not."

She thought there were no other options until she stumbled upon the etymology of the word wife - wif, meaning woman.

The male equivalent of wif is wer like the word ‘werwolf’ - a man and a wolf.

Unless anyone else comes up with a better idea, Audra will continue to use the word wer for her husband, Andrew, 37, a software developer - who doesn't mind what she calls him.

Audra, a digital analyst, from New York, said: “I wanted to make a point and make people think - and illustrate that language is used as a political tool to oppress women.

She said: "I don't like the word husband because it is rooted in sexism, it means master and controller of the house.

“I have received a crazy amount of backlash as people took it very seriously.

“It was mainly men in the comments - mansplaining how language works, they were homophobic and misogynistic and called my husband a ‘wife’."

Audra added her 'wer,' Andrew, knew what he was getting into after being together for eight years before tying the knot in August of this year.

The feminist adds she refuses to take out the ‘just’ or ‘sorry’ and exclamation marks from her emails after calls from men to do so.

“I think as women we should honor the way women talk,” she added.

Another word she refuses to use is ‘b***h* after it used to be a neutral female world that has evolved to be an insult against women.

She also hates the word p****y when it’s used as an insult and says phrases like 'grow a pair' 'man up' and 'sissy' are deeply damaging to men.

Audra explains there is a double standard between feminine equivalents of masculine words - ‘sissy’ means wimp whereas ‘buddy’ means good friend.

She adds there is no feminine ‘kingdom’ or ‘queendom’ and first-year university students are referred to as freshmen, not freshwomen.

“I choose whether to use words or not based on whether they are doing more damage to society," she said.

“Husband isn’t actually doing more damage to society but I want people to be aware of the patriarchal routes.”