Advertisement

‘Essex girl' removed from dictionary because it's 'offensive'

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM - 2019/09/15: Gemma Collins arrives at London Fashion Week in a bespoke wrapped Miss-guided Rolls Royce as part of a customer giveaway activation. (Photo by Brett Cove/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
TOWIE star Gemma Collins does not like the term 'Essex girl' (Getty)

‘Essex girl’ will no longer be included in one of the Oxford dictionaries after campaigners argued the term perpetuated a 'very offensive' stereotype.

The phrase, which is a derogatory term for women from the county in southeast England, was initially made famous by the ITV reality show The Only Way is Essex (TOWIE).

The term has since grown to irritate many, including novelist Syd Moore, who founded action group Essex Girls' Liberation Front to fight against the phrase.

She told the Times newspaper: “Women from the Congo had heard of the Essex girl. I thought: It's time to get rid of this once and for all.”

Read more: Herd immunity ‘not likely for foreseeable future despite vaccine’

Chris Pratt and Anna Faris are huge TOWIE fans
A scene from the Only Way is Essex (ITVBe)

TOWIE star Gemma Collins has also criticised the term in the past, telling Sky News: "I think the dictionary should be paying everyone in Essex compensation.

"We have evolved over the years. It is very derogatory what has been said about us. And it does need to be changed."

Oxford University Press has now decided to remove ‘Essex girl’ from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (OALD), which had the definition: “A name used especially in jokes to refer to a type of young woman who is not intelligent, dresses badly, talks in a loud and ugly way and is very willing to have sex.”

The OALD is used by foreign language students to learn English.

Read more: Drunk friends who abused cabin crew on Jet2 flight jailed

The term ‘Essex girl’ will remain in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) for “historical” purposes but it will come with the acknowledgement it is "derogatory" and "contemptuous”, officials confirmed.

The Essex Girls' Liberation Front effort was supported by campaign group Snapping the Stiletto, which won a £200,000 lottery grant.

A 3,500 signature petition in 2016 failed to get ‘Essex girl’ removed for the OED.