The word Womyn

[funkyfreo]

What's your opinion?

 

[llosis]

never understood the need for it myself.

 

[otaku]

one of these ridiculous changes that makes no diff whatsoever

 

[funkyfreo]

The results thus far beg me to ask just why it is that people to the right of politics are so intolerant. IT seems like little things like this really give them the poos.

 

[Leper]

Will try to use it next time I'm playing scrabble and see how others react. They'll probably rip my clothes off and chuck me in the pool.

 

[funkyfreo]

Will try to use it next time I'm playing scrabble and see how others react. They'll probably rip my clothes off and chuck me in the pool.

Will the rip their clothes off too and jump in with you? Could be worth the risk.

The good thing is you can have wimmin, womyn, womin, wymyn - so many scrabble opportunities!

 

[llosis]

The results thus far beg me to ask just why it is that people to the right of politics are so intolerant. IT seems like little things like this really give them the poos.

Yes, but you did set the poll up for that result though didn't you?

 

[funkyfreo]

Yes, but you did set the poll up for that result though didn't you?

I set it up to see if that was the result, not to get that result.

There are three options. Middle Ground/whatever, I LOVE IT, I HATE IT.

I can understand that only real ardent feminists may shose the love it argument, and was interested to see the split bewteen people who are ambivalent, and those who strongly oppose.

 

[Roobunny]

Actually I lied...I said it doesn't bother me it - does. There are bigger issues for women in society than this...the ones who spend all this time on semantic rubbish as if it's some symbol of male oppression annoy the heck out of me.

 

[funkyfreo]

Actually I lied...I said it doesn't bother me it - does. There are bigger issues for women in society than this...the ones who spend all this time on semantic rubbish as if it's some symbol of male oppression annoy the heck out of me.

Agreed, but all they do is write the word Womyn. It is all the anti-femmo types who rant about it that invest all the time on it.

 

[MightyFighting]

From dictionary.com:

[Middle English, from Old English wimman, variant of wfman : wf, woman; see ghwbh- in Indo-European Roots + man, person; see man.]

In other words the "man" in "woman" comes from the Old English word "man" meaning human. The word "man" didn't come to mean male adult until after the word "woman" was coined. Therefore, the "man" in "woman" has nothing to do with penisses. This abuse of language irritates me so much! Also, it's "chairMAN" not bloody "chairPERSON" even if it's woman... sorry "womyn"... sorry "womun"... sorry "wimoon" or whatever the hell we're supposed to write today.

 

[otaku]

I set it up to see if that was the result, not to get that result.

There are three options. Middle Ground/whatever, I LOVE IT, I HATE IT.

I can understand that only real ardent feminists may shose the love it argument, and was interested to see the split bewteen people who are ambivalent, and those who strongly oppose.

Basically it was set up to try to distance the word woman from the word man.

"womyn" also decided that "mankind" was sexist, and this led to "personkind"

Those sort of statements do annoy the shyte out of me. Mankind does NOT refer to the male of the species. It refers to the species we are, as in huMANkind.

Thats why i get annoyed by it.

 

[Weaver]

I object to it because it is stupid. Presumably the objection is to the term "woman" because it defines them in relation to men. Fine object to that. But "womyn" is just an antiquated origin of exactly the same thing. It means the same thing.

 

[funkyfreo]

Bottom line is that if men were not sexist, and try to dominate society and treat women as inferior, then less women would want to be womyn.

Yes Chairman could be referring to man as in mankind which is a species description not a sexist remark, if only all the men had not resisted women becoming chairmen for so long, maybe would not need Chairwomen or Chairpeople.

 

[otaku]

Bottom line is that if men were not sexist, and try to dominate society and treat women as inferior, then less women would want to be womyn.

Yes Chairman could be referring to man as in mankind which is a species description not a sexist remark, if only all the men had not resisted women becoming chairmen for so long, maybe would not need Chairwomen or Chairpeople.

I don't think it really has anything to do with "empowerment" of women. It is more to do with a catch cry for movementairians to hang their hats on.

 

[Roobunny]

Bottom line is that if men were not sexist, and try to dominate society and treat women as inferior, then less women would want to be womyn.

Yes Chairman could be referring to man as in mankind which is a species description not a sexist remark, if only all the men had not resisted women becoming chairmen for so long, maybe would not need Chairwomen or Chairpeople.

Where as a woman I disagree to an extent. To be honest I've never heard anyone describe themselves as a womyn before - the first I've seen is on this board. My belief is that sometimes by insisting that a person is called a Chairwoman or a firewoman etc, that it makes their gender more of an issue than is necessary. Obviously it makes sense to say Chairwoman if it is a woman but to insist on it, just seems to force the issue.

 

[funkyfreo]

Dictionary . com

Usage Note: Traditionally, many writers have used man and words derived from it to designate any or all of the human race regardless of sex. In fact, this is the oldest use of the word. In Old English the principal sense of man was “a human,” and the words wer and wyf (or wæpman and wifman) were used to refer to “a male human” and “a female human” respectively. But in Middle English man displaced wer as the term for “a male human,” while wyfman (which evolved into present-day woman) was retained for “a female human.” Despite this change, man continued to carry its original sense of “a human” as well, resulting in an asymmetrical arrangement that many criticize as sexist. ·Nonetheless, a majority of the Usage Panel still accepts the generic use of man, although the women members have significantly less enthusiasm for this usage than the men do. For example, the sentence If early man suffered from a lack of information, modern man is tyrannized by an excess of it is acceptable to 81 percent of the Panelbut a breakdown by sex shows that only 58 percent of the women Panelists accept it, while 92 percent of the men do. A majority of the Panel also accepts compound words derived from generic man. The sentence The Great Wall is the only man-made structure visible from space is acceptable to 86 percent (76 percent of the women and 91 percent of the men). The sentence "The history of language is the history of mankind" (James Bradstreet Greenough and George Lyman Kittredge) is acceptable to 76 percent (63 percent of the women and 82 percent of the men). The Panel finds such compounds less acceptable when applied to women, however; only 66 percent of the Panel members (57 percent of the women and 71 percent of the men) accept the use of the word manpower in the sentence Countries that do not permit women to participate in the work force are at a disadvantage in competing with those that do avail themselves of that extra source of manpower. ·Similar controversy surrounds the generic use of -man compounds to indicate occupational and social roles. Thus the use of chairman in the sentence The chairman will be appointed by the Faculty Senate is acceptable to 67 percent of the Panel (52 percent of the women and 76 percent of the men). Approval rates fall much further, however, for -man compounds applied to women. Only 48 percent (43 percent of the women and 50 percent of the men) accept the use of the word in Emily Owen, chairman of the Mayor's Task Force, issued a statement assuring residents that their views would be solicited. A majority of the Panelists also rejects the verb man when used to refer to an activity performed by women. Fifty-six percent of the Panel (61 percent of the women and 54 percent of the men) disapprove of the sentence Members of the League of Women Voters will be manning the registration desk. See Usage Note at -ess. See Usage Note at men. See Usage Note at people. See Usage Note at person.

 

[Mr Q]

Seems a bit ridiculous to me. Does the word "antacid" imply some subservient relationship to ants? I don't really care whether it gets used, but I'm not going out of my way to do so.

 

[funkyfreo]

Seems a bit ridiculous to me. Does the word "antacid" imply some subservient relationship to ants? I don't really care whether it gets used, but I'm not going out of my way to do so.

Mr Q, they are clearly unrellated words. Not up to your usual standard of observations.

I agree, I don;t go out of my way to use it, I just don;t get why people get upset about it, when it is only used by a small group anyway and certainly is not threatening to become mainstream.

 

[TigerCraig]

University undergraduate board

 

[Stealth bomber]

I'm a card-carrying lefty and I don't like the word.

 

[llosis]

I set it up to see if that was the result, not to get that result.

There are three options. Middle Ground/whatever, I LOVE IT, I HATE IT.

I can understand that only real ardent feminists may shose the love it argument, and was interested to see the split bewteen people who are ambivalent, and those who strongly oppose.

Yes, but by have the two polar extremes you assign those of us who may find it mildly irritating into either the HATE IT category or the whatever category, neither of which is accurate.

I realise it is not a survey conducted under monitored test conditions but they way you phrased your options led those responding to fall nicely into your pre-conceived outcome. That's ok, just don't get too excited by the outcome.

 

[llosis]

Bottom line is that if men were not sexist, and try to dominate society and treat women as inferior, then less women would want to be womyn.

Yes Chairman could be referring to man as in mankind which is a species description not a sexist remark, if only all the men had not resisted women becoming chairmen for so long, maybe would not need Chairwomen or Chairpeople.

I actually thought Chairman was an abbreviation of "Chair manager".

 

[funkyfreo]

Yes, but by have the two polar extremes you assign those of us who may find it mildly irritating into either the HATE IT category or the whatever category, neither of which is accurate.

I realise it is not a survey conducted under monitored test conditions but they way you phrased your options led those responding to fall nicely into your pre-conceived outcome. That's ok, just don't get too excited by the outcome.

I honestly think that if you look at the options, and you think that you are mildly irritated only, then the "Bloody femmos and lesos" option is not for you.

I run my polls to find out what the opinions are - I'm not trying to conjure a result.

 

[llosis]

I honestly think that if you look at the options, and you think that you are mildly irritated only, then the "Bloody femmos and lesos" option is not for you.

And that's my point

I run my polls to find out what the opinions are - I'm not trying to conjure a result.

Fair enough