Meet the feminist who refuses to use the word husband and spouse and opts for ‘wer’ instead, the old English word for man. Audra Fitzgerald, 26, a digital analyst from New York, New York, USA, with a background in linguistics, has opted to use the old English word for man, ‘wer’, instead of husband which means ‘master of the house’. The linguist jokes spouse sounds too generic and likes partner, but it isn’t always specific and sometimes you have to be clear for legal reasons whether you’re married or not. The New Yorker 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 husband. She said: “I made the TikTok to make a point and make people think and illustrate that language is used as a political tool to oppress women. "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’”. 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. 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. “Husband isn’t actually doing more damage to society but I want people to be aware of the patriarchal routes.”
