The Chicktionary

Today’s interview is about how two radical women authors have created something fantastic to turn the patriarchy on its head: we’re presenting “The Chicktionary” episode about “Mama’s First Pocket Chicktionary (taking the dick out of the dictionary).”

Kym Trippsmith and Sherry Glaser took their amazing abilities with word weaving play and created a feminist linguistic rebellion, and you’re invited! They have been looking at how we want to spell certain words, all witchy connotations intended thank you very much, and they spent the pandemic writing down some of their favorite word plays in a pocket book that they have published to share with you this summer!

Their intention is to hex the patriarchy, reclaim words to uplift women (and everybody who wants to smash the system), and use comedy to re-examine how we view and engage with the world. The Chicktionary serves up a healthy dose of women-centric wordscapes with a flourishing focus on Goddess lineages. 

The tagline “taking the dick out of the dictionary” speaks to old school feminist desires to create spaces for women to be women (in all our glorious complexity, freedom, and empowerment) without the influence of “the man.” The man, definite article, being distinguished as a place holder (not for actual men as a generalized whole, but rather) for the oppressive uses of patriarchal power structures where women are either actively excluded or not been given an equal seat at the table to share power with. 

Because, women need to be included in the governance of this world. We are here to help guide the future, and we deserve to be heard.

I haven’t read the whole Chicktionary through yet, so I don’t know everywhere that the authors went with their creative license, but I know that our two authors felt that it was important to mention the political sphere, and they made some important reframes (in particular Kym will describe the ways that the Chicktionary dealt with the words constitution and congress in the podcast to hilarious effect). 

I sat down with Kym to discuss how and why she and Sherry brought forth The Chicktionary. Both womyn have spent their lives as creatives and activists, attempting to bring awareness to the unfortunate inequalities that womyn, the environment, and the feminine paradigm continue to face.

I wish that we lived in a world where this wasn’t the case, and in bringing forth their spell-chicks (a play on spell-check) they have looked at the ways that they words we are using can be re-spelled to foster feminine uplifting from the ecology of the earth to women’s bodies. 

As an author, I am constantly playing with the words that I use. I love few things as much as the opportunity to create new meanings, to shift how I say things to create more potency, and to consider how to add comedic flair to my word weaving.

This is a practice that I like to take all the way in, and let it permeate my consciousness deeply. My writing is something that gives me a voice to the world, so I can appreciate how powerful words are and how it’s a really great idea to take an inventory of what you/we are actually saying and if your/our lexicon is serving all your/our needs. 

Because truly, we have arrived at a place in time where we know we have to make some valuable changes. I’m looking forward to reading what Kym and Sherry have come up with. I’m also equally enthusiastic about the invitation from these two creatives to re-spell your own words, at your own leisure, to your own values. I hope you’ll get a good laugh, enjoy what these two powerful women have created, and reflect on how you want to play with your words too!