W

WHITEWASHING — Erasing the contributions and identities of people of color in order to center white people.

Queer culture and mainstream culture are both extremely whitewashed.

see also: RACISM; ERASURE; PINKWASHING

WHORE — Pejorative (some would say slur) to describe full-service sex workers, anyone profiled as a full-service sex worker, or anyone (usually women) deemed too promiscuous or too provocative in their dress.

Using whore as a slur is part of wider culture of misogyny, slut-shaming, and whorephobia.

Some sex workers police the borders of who’s allowed to use the word “whore,” suggesting that people who are racialized and assumed to be street sex workers (e.g., Black trans women often face this stigma) shouldn’t use it. Others think that if someone is targeted by the violence of a word (and the material consequences which go with it), regardless of whether they hold the identity that goes along with the word or are just perceived to hold that identity, they should be allowed to use it.

Whore has its etymological roots in a 1530s spelling alteration of Old English “hore,” which meant prostitute, from Proto-Germanic *horaz (fem. *horon-), “one who desires.” The Middle English homonym “hore” meant “physical filth, slime,” or “moral corruption, sin.” It has been a general term of abuse for an unchaste or lewd woman (without regard to money) from at least c.1200, and of male prostitutes since the 1630s.

see also: WHOREPHOBIA

WHOREPHOBIA — Violence toward and stigma surrounding sex workers.

Sex workers are disproportionately queer and trans, because queer and trans people are denied access to “civilian” jobs (jobs outside of the sex industry).

Whorephobia includes the direct threats of violence that sex workers face from the state, their partners, their clients, and the public, as well as a culture of stigma and shame surrounding sex work, especially full-service sex work.

Sex work has long been an area of debate in feminism: “Is sex work feminist?,” and “Is sex work work?” Rather than critiquing the choices made by vulnerable people to survive in a hostile world as “unfeminist,” our feminism should endeavor to give everyone the agency to make meaningful choices about the kind of work they do (if any). This means creating conditions where people aren’t economically forced into work they don’t want to do. Sex work is positioned as being uniquely coercive and undignified, but under conditions of capitalism all work is coercive and much of it is undignified. Sex workers are not a monolith: many enjoy their jobs, many don’t, and most fall somewhere in the middle. Forcing sex workers to reduce their experiences to a sound bite of “happy hooker” or “tragic victim” is one aspect of whorephobia.

Whorephobia also conflates sex work with sex trafficking—the definitive difference between the two is consent. Many sex workers are organized into unions and collectives, many of which have members who have also been victims of sex trafficking. We would do well to listen to them, rather than speak over them in clumsy and dangerous attempts to “rescue” them. The key things that modern sex worker collectives are campaigning for are the decriminalization of sex work (in contrast to legalization and the so-called Nordic model which criminalizes clients and by extension makes sex work less safe), and the importance of net neutrality without state surveillance.

see also: WHORE

WLW — Acronym for WOMEN WHO LOVE WOMEN.

WOMAN — An adult human who identifies with womanhood.

Gender is sloppy and evasive—womanhood is defined by a connection to femininity, a connection to other women, and its relationship to power.

Womanhood could also be defined in opposition to manhood, but this is largely tautological. Womanhood is not a coherent, monolithic group.

Womanhood is not defined by body parts or genetics.

see also: GENDER; MAN; FEMININITY; PATRIARCHY

WOMANISM — A strand of feminism born out of the limitations of second-wave feminism, particularly its failure to account for Black women and other marginalized women.

Womanism was first used by Black feminist author Alice Walker in 1981.

see also: FEMINISM; INTERSECTIONALITY

WOMAN OF TRANS EXPERIENCE — The preferred term for many women who are not cis but don’t necessarily center their transness in their womanhood.

Alternative terms include “trans woman,” “assigned male at birth,” or “assigned-male,” “transfeminine,” and “trans femme.” The terms any individual uses to describe themselves will be based on personal preference and subcultural connotations, and should be respected.

see also: TRANS WOMAN; TRANSFEMININE

WOMEN AND NON-BINARY SPACES — A safe(r) space for anyone who isn’t a man, in recognition that men hold a position of privilege over women and non-binary people. They are also called “women and gender variant spaces.”

Safer spaces are important sites of healing and organization for marginalized people. But are these women and non-binary spaces actually safe and inclusive for trans women and trans femmes? This is an especially relevant question regarding trans women and femmes who don’t pass, or don’t care about passing, or don’t medically transition.

We must also acknowledge that cis women also perpetuate gendered violence, and that trans men are often allowed into spaces under this name even though they are men; privilege and oppression, and the capacity to perpetuate violence, do not exist on only a single axis (gender).

see also: SAFER SPACE; WOMAN; NON-BINARY

WOMEN’S LIBERATION — The struggle for emancipation for women from patriarchy and intersecting systems of oppression.

Some feminists viewed queer issues and lesbianism as a distraction from women’s liberation, while anyone half-decent sees them as inseparable. In the 1970s, the key demands of the women’s liberation movement were: equal pay; equal education and job opportunities; free contraception and abortion on demand; free 24-hour nurseries; financial and legal independence; and an end to discrimination against lesbians and a woman’s right to define her own sexuality.

Feminism and women’s liberation has had a conflict between race and white feminism: Black feminists Audre Lorde and bell hooks, among many others, challenge the idea of a universal (white) womanhood.

see also: FEMINISM; WOMAN; INTERSECTIONALITY

WOMEN WHO LOVE WOMEN (WLW) — Women who are sexually or romantically attracted to women. They are sometimes called “Women who have Sex with Women (WSW),” and also “Sapphic.”

Women who Love Women is different from gay, bisexual, queer, and other sexuality labels because it’s not centered on identity but on behavior. This makes room for women who are hesitant to claim queerness to describe their sexual and romantic life; accounting for this is especially important in a sexual health setting.

Women who Love Women also flattens out different queer identities, which is useful for solidarity, highlighting the shared experience of being a woman who loves women.

see also: SAPPHIC; WOMAN

WOMYN, WOMBYN — Alternative spellings of “woman” and “women,” used by some feminists to reject the “-men” suffix and by extension the definition of women as relational to men. Wombyn is an alternative spelling which equates womb with womanhood.

Womyn and wombyn are criticized as terms for being transphobic and biologically essentialist.

Womyn first appeared in print in reference to the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival.

see also: WOMAN; TERF; FEMINISM; CAMP TRANS

WSW — Acronym for “Women Who Have Sex With Women.”

see also: WOMEN WHO LOVE WOMEN