Lake Superior State University agrees with me: time to dump the “baby bump” 0
Wanna touch our baby bumps and watch us giggle?
I’ve been saying for a long time that the term “baby bump” infantilizes women, turning them into baby girls in baby doll dresses parading their baby bumps for everyone to ogle and pet. It belongs in the language trash bin next to “fecal pancake” (okay, I made that one up) and a long list of cringe-worthy things adults say without realizing it makes them sound like juveniles. No expectant mother (oh, excuse me, expectant “mom” since any woman with a child of any age is now a “mom”, including the mom they found stuffed in a barrel in Queens and reported it that way) with an ounce of self-respect will allow her pregnant stomach to be called a “baby bump.” It seems our collective growth is more stunted every year.
DETROIT (AP) – Before passing comment on someone’s “baby bump,” take a pregnant pause. Likewise, give up promoting “shared sacrifice.” And if you’re tempted to proclaim your desire to “win the future,” you’ve lost it here in the present.
Michigan’s Lake Superior State University is featuring those phrases in its annual List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness. The 2012 list, released Friday, was compiled by the university from nominations submitted from across the globe.
What else do the syntactical Scrooges want to cast out with the good cheer in the new year? The list also includes “occupy,” “ginormous,” “man cave” and “the new normal.”
In all, a dozen words or phrases made the 37th end-of-the year list. The list started as a publicity ploy by the school’s public relations department on New Year’s Day 1976, and has since generated tens of thousands of nominations.
