Bromophobia, pronounced bro-mo-phobia, is a term I’d like to introduce to the English language. Contrary to how it is phonetically pronounced, is not an irrational fear of the element Bromine. Instead, it is a term that essentially means the hatred, distrust or prejudice against men. I expect the radicalized left to start sharpening their pitchforks. “Dan, this is a disgusting example of cultural appropriation!” An angry reader of mine will protest. To be fair, they are absolutely right; it is cultural appropriation, but society has been clear that cultural appropriation is actually okay. However, this term absolutely needs to exist in our dialog.
The modern radicalized left-wing is dangerously bromophobic. Since the dawn of the 21st century, the radicalized left has instituted more openly bromophobic words into the cultural mainstream, such as mansplain and manspread. The radicalized bromophobic left has taken it upon themselves to culturally police how the common man speaks and how they innocently sit in public transit. While much ink has been spilled on the War on Men in certain corners of the internet and by authors such as Dr. Christina Hoff Summers, more must be done for the sake of constructive dialog.
With that said, I feel that the term bromophobia serves as a great communicative tool in our modern society. The suffix phobia is commonly used in terms that refer to open hatred of other groups of people such as homophobia and islamophobia. The ending of phobia is important because it paints the recipient of the term in a negative, often bigoted light. The modern radicalized-left goes to great lengths to not seem oppressive or narrow-minded, as showcased with their unwavering support of the Black Lives Matter movement as well as the Pride movement. Thus, image is vitally important to the modern radical leftist. Hence, this cultural appropriation was necessary because it is a language that someone on the radical left will certainly understand. They might not agree with the term, they might not accept being labeled by the term, but they absolutely will understand the term; the understanding of the term is what matters.We tend to overlook an important factor in cross-cultural discourse; the recipient of the message is the most important aspect of communication, not the sender. Therefore, adapting language that the recipient is bound to understand is absolutely crucial.
“Well Dan, since you’ve been so critical of the radicalized left, of which I am a part of, then that must mean that you are aligned with the radicalized right! Eat pitchfork!!”. Nice try, kid. Now step away from the pitchfork before you put someone’s eye out. And to clarify, the radical right is just as bad with their unique flavor of bromophobia as well. Terms such as cuck (when used outside of its sexual context), as well as beta male (when used outside of its zoology context), and soy boy are all radically bromophobic; worse off, these are terms overwhelmingly used by men against other men. Terms such as beta and cuck are also rife with cultural appropriation as well; few zoologists are likely to use the terms when they punch out of work. The radical right also commits intersectional bromophobia whenever a migrant crisis occurs in a majority non-white nation; scores of pundits (eww…pundits) throw around the idea that military aged males should not be allowed into their country. This rhetoric is often not only racist in nature, but singling out these people specifically because of their gender is severely bromophobic.
Coining a new term to talk about a phenomenon is the first step to opening up a widespread discussion about said phenomenon. Many dystopian novels, such as Fahrenheit 451 and 1984, focus on the restriction of vocabulary as a means of diverting conversation away from a topic that the elites want to suppress. Therefore, those who oppose the term bromophobia are likely to be highly bromophobic themselves.
Inserting a term such as bromophobia is needed even in un-radicalized contexts as well. It is all too common for a group of women to say something like My husband needs to be reminded to do [insert task here]! Why are men such idiots? Or things such as guys can’t read the room/pick up hints/ [insert mild complaint here] can-and-should be labeled as bromophobic. This tracks well with George Carlin’s knowledge drop on language; the term bromophobia is a far more direct way of expressing the idea of sexist against men than any other term that currently exists.
“Well Dan, you can’t just make up words. That’s not how language works!” an enraged reader will react. Sorry, but you are just unequivocally wrong on that one. Languages are just as living as the people who use them, and new vocabulary is coined all the time. Terms such as YOLO or swag were virtually unheard of prior to the 2010’s yet now they have reached widespread acceptance and understanding amongst the masses. This is also true for terms such as Latinx and brunch as well. As much as Dave Chappelle complains about words being invented, that has been the case for as long as formal speech has been around. However, to humor Mr. Chappelle, some can say that bromophobia is a made-up term that could hypothetically be used to shutdown discussions and is no less valid of a word than TERF.
Therefore, I make a motion for Merriam-Webster, Cambridge University and Oxford University to include bromophobia into their dictionaries, as these institutions often serve as linguistic gatekeepers. Frequently, pretentious English teachers use the argument of if it’s not in the dictionary, then it’s not a real word. Of course, the inclusion of terms such as ain’t and D’oh within my lifetime have certainly strengthened this argument, as these terms are generally far more accepted now than they were in the 1990’s. Furthermore, I envision a world in which future updates to Apple, Samsung and Microsoft operating systems will include this word and its definition in all of their updates. Being included into the digital dictionaries of those three tech companies is important because as more of our world is slanted towards electronic communication, the average person is more likely to accept the word if their phone or word processor doesn’t falsely flag the term as a spelling error.
Share this article with the bromophobe in your life…
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