When a dictionary definition becomes hate speech

So, when does a dictionary definition count as hate speech? When it’s the dictionary definition of a woman – ‘woman/noun/adult human female’ – and it’s on a poster in Liverpool during the Labour Party conference, that’s when, silly.

Admittedly, the idea, courtesy of a female blogger, Kellie-Jay Keen Minshull, to put the definition up on a £700 billboard for the duration of the conference seems a little eccentric. ‘I wanted it to stimulate debate,’ she said. The conversation she had in mind was probably about the gender pay gap, all female parliamentary shortlists, Twitter abuse of female politicians, all the usual stuff that gets feminists worked up at these events. I’m only guessing here, but I imagine the definition was meant to provoke reflection about whether the mere fact of qualifying the noun human with the adjective female should lead to different life outcome for the adults in question from that of other adults, male.