A toxic 2018 owing to #metoo

Toxic is trending and no, we’re not talking about Britney Spears’ superhit pop song. The word “toxic” has been declared the word of the year by the Oxford dictionary.

Having lasting potential as a term of cultural significance, the word best captures the ethos, mood or preoccupations of 2018.  Gaslighting and techlash were among the runners-up as well.

Talking about the word of the year, marketing executive Disha S says, “It is a bit dispiriting that toxic is the word of the year, but sadly, it does sum up the mood of the year across the world. Especially with the #metoo movement that we saw take shape in India, a couple of months ago. Even in Bengaluru, we heard sexual harassment allegations against famous people. And as 2018 draws to a close, I hope men everywhere have paid close attention to the toxic masculinity that envelopes nearly every industry and do their bit in helping women bring about a positive change. Maybe that will see us into a happier 2019 with a more uplifting word of the year.”

The Oxford dictionary observed a 45 percent increase in the number of times that “toxic” was looked up on its website this year. Toxic’s popular accompaniments include nouns like  “chemical,” “waste” and “algae” as well as  “masculinity,” “relationship” and “culture.”

Reacting to this, musician Riccha Paul says, “Wouldn’t it be great if toxic was just a song by Britney Spears rather than the mindset of our society? Men trying to be too manly. Women putting down other women to get ahead. Children studying for marks and not a real education. Love, peace, encouragement and empowerment may sound like pageant queen ideologies but if we really just start to focus on being better humans, empathising with the people around us and putting our egos aside, we might just eradicate this toxic atmosphere and give our country a chance to grow and flourish.”

Another word that was talked about often was gaslighting, an action of manipulating someone by psychological  means into accepting false depictions of reality or doubting their own sanity. It’s a term that people who deal with narcissistic and sociopathic people often have to deal with. Other popular words include techlash, orbiting and over tourism. Overtourism shows an excessive number of tourist visits to a popular destination or attraction, resulting in damage to the local environment and historical sites.

Food blogger Suganya Lakshmi says, “Unsurprisingly the word of the year, overtourism shows us the worst of the human spirit. Pretty self-explanatory, our selfish need to update our social media with pictures of us visiting popular tourist spots, our need to casually throw around hashtags such a #wanderlust and #solotravel as well as our careless attitudes towards heritage sites and our environment has damaged places of importance. Here’s to hoping 2019 brings more mindful vacations for everyone.”