Growing up in the late 1970s, my best friend was from Michigan. Early in our friendship I asked her what someone from Michigan is called. “Michigander,” she replied. I laughed and said, “You mean like a goose?” Her older sister then chimed in that it was being changed to Michiganian. Michigander is sexist, she said, since gander refers only to a male goose.
I spent the next two decades never questioning, or particularly thinking about, Michiganian.
