A Woman Named Isis Is Really Upset at the Media over That Other ISIS…

By Josh FeldmanSep 13th, 2014, 6:07 pm
 

If your name is Isis…. um, it has not been a very pleasant few months for you. And one Florida woman decided to take action with a petition to get the media to stop calling the terrorist group “ISIS” and call them “ISIL” instead, because 1) that’s the acronym the U.S. government is using, and 2) I doubt very much there’s a significant number of people named “Isil” who will have a problem with it.

Isis Martinez told Fusion that she is really frustrated with the reaction her name now inspires. When someone suggested to Martinez she go by her middle name, her reaction was to say, “People don’t know me as Teresa, they know me as Isis. If I do that, then the terrorists win.”

She argues that people named Isis are “collateral damage” in the media’s branding of this terrorist group, and Martinez has even gone so far as to set up a petition that has gotten, as of this posting, 1205 signatures.

For weeks, Martinez has been complaining about the media’s use of the acronym on Twitter:

The mobile app Isis Wallet had to change its name weeks ago, but it’s not like human beings have that same choice. And there’s another question we need to consider: what about Archer?

You can watch Martinez’s video here:

[h/t Fusion]
[image via screengrab]

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Josh Feldman is a Senior Editor at Mediaite. Email him here: josh@mediaite.com Follow him on Twitter: @feldmaniac