I know "womyn" is in the FAQ but I found something on Wikipedia about it

In a Women's Lit class in highschool we read a story about what one woman speculated might happen if men did menstruate. That was a long time ago and I don't remember what it was called or who wrote it. It said things like that if men menstruated, they'd boast about the volume of their flow and cramps would be considered a perfectly legitimate reason to take a sick day. It was written humorously.

 

The "story" was written by Gloria Steinham, and this has already been discussed:

http://hipforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=54280

What gets me, is that if a man wrote such a piece about women's many hypocracies, there'd be an outcry--for that matter, if anything was written about any other minority group, it would be considered to be bigoted. Yet it seems as though such things are perfectly acceptable if written by feminists. Kind of makes you wonder.

 

2 versions of this piece:

http://www.qis.net/~jimjr/men60.htm

http://www.qis.net/~jimjr/wom26.htm

Kinda like the bumpersticker:

"If men got pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament!"

 

Were you not just in the 'men think, women think' or whatever thread speaking of sexism? How about hypocracy now?

 

the spellings do bother me on the basic "hey! i'd give that a red check on a spelling test!" level, but not much more than that. i won't do it, i don't wanna look like i'm unable to spell correctly, or changing spelling to be hip, like teenagers in the usa spelling color as colour to look european. i just think it's silly.

 

my objections to the use of the alternate spelling have to do with it's silliness, to a lesser degree, but more importantly because i see it as dividing. why do women feel they need a special, separate spelling? i'm sure it must confuse men even more. with thousands of years of devisive cultural conditioning against us, i feel that we don't need to confuse matters or hold ourselves (or them) so separate and apart. and that isn't to say that i feel that any differences between the genders need not be acknowledged, either. i am not a big fan of androgyny, either. just simply that there has been more than enough to divide us from our brothers culturally for so long. we need to start seeing ourselves as part of each other, more importantly part of a larger whole that is greater than the sum of its parts - not in the sense of sexual relationships, but in our shared humanity. have we forgotten that, regardless of gender or other divisions, we are all human?


just my personal thoughts on the issue.

 

I hate the spelling of women as "womyn" with a deep passion. It's ridiculous. Both "men" and "women" come from the word "human." Should we now alter the spelling of "human" so that women aren't associated with anything man-like? Are we all "humyns" now? How stupid. Get over yourselves.

 

May i ask why, out of all the old english or whatever words, you choose only that one.

 

my question is, is it really old english?

 

I like womanist, in some contexts. Didn't know that she'd used herstory, hmmm...

Random note: I got the new issue of Bust yesterday, and realized for the first time that there's a regular column called "Herstory."

Why do I have the feeling that I'm suddenly going to be seeing that non-word everywhere?

 

just do a search for 'herstory' on google and you can see the word is used all over, especially at colleges. So much for it being "misogynists" who try to claim that feminists use the word.

 

Ever heard anyone use the word "herstory," Megara? Having feminist freinds myself, a LOT of them (which something tells me you don't have a lot of freinds who are feminists) I have rarely heard this word used. Have you?

I've been to college. Never heard "herstory" used there either, but, damn, if you saw the word on google, than it must be true.

I am not going to adddress this issue any more, if you like the word, then use it. If you don't then don't. It doesn't effect you or me either way.

 

er, well I also did a search on google for herstory, and in the first two pages there was only one page that was affiliated with a college/univ (well, maybe two... one was iffy with it's url). Good gracious, who really cares anyways? So long as people understand what you mean, and you aren't offending anyone, who cares about what words are used?

 

i've heard it used by feminist friends and at my college as well, bu it was used rather tongue-in-cheek, as a pun, referring to so-called "women's" history (or rather, women's contribution to everybody's history that seldom gets acknowledged.) but i've never heard it used as a serious, deliberate attempt to "remove" maleness from history.


either way, i still hold with my original opinion that alternate spellings are dividing and dumb. but, to each their own.

 

Every march at my college.

Here, i'll give you the link from the club at NYU. Heck, its a recognize month at the office of student activities

Women's Herstory Month
Held every March at New York University

Women's Herstory Month at New York University is dedicated to promoting awareness of the broad spectrum of people's experiences as women. We seek to empower women from a variety of cultures and communities while continuing to create safe and inclusive spaces for all. This is a time where the NYU community can raise awareness and celebrate the spirit of women. The focus is on everything from women's health issues to the ideas of feminism and how it affects today's society.

For more information, you can contact the Women's Herstory Month Advisor, Diana Lugo-Martinez, at diana.lugo@nyu.edu or 212-998-4201.

http://www.nyu.edu/clubs/womensherstory


http://www.osa.nyu.edu/content/03pro_08cel_00m.htm


also, someone posted earlier from the university of saskatchewan


http://library.usask.ca/herstory/society.html


I brought up google not to show how many random people use the word, but how many are links to universities. Heck, even NASA is using the word!

http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/oral_histories/herstory.htm

 

i got 3 for just 'herstory" on the first 2 pages

University of saskatchewan,
USC
purdue

type in "herstory month" and you get 10 on the first 2 pages.

University of british columbia
UVM
emerson
Uconn
rutgers
bryant
utica
whatever the hell csupoma is
berkely
NYU

Thats 1 in 2 that link to universities.

Now, that was a giant waste of time for me, but i think its silly that some people would even try to deny that 'herstory' is widely used.

 

"Good gracious, who really cares anyways? So long as people understand what you mean, and you aren't offending anyone, who cares about what words are used?" Must I reiterate my point again?

It's a word. It's not offensive. What's the problem? Yeah, maybe it's dividing, but so was my friends and I calling ourselves "vancies" (because we were in the advanced program in high school). Whatever, it's not a big deal.

I might as well say I like monkies, and someone will argue with my why liking monkies is an awful thing and an overused phrase in society, if this thread continues in its belittling little way....



btw, Megara, sorry I didn't notice my own univ's page on there... though I must comment on the fact that the library is fairly independent from the university compared to colleges, groups and even the physical activity complex in it's administration.

arguing pointlessly is fun!

 

Many people take offense to womyn and herstory because they believe its anti male. I personally think it is anti male, but i dont really care what people use. However, it was claimed that "misogynists tell people that radical feminists use herstory." I am tired of these type of responses that are constantly used to try and discredit anyone who criticizes aspects of feminism. Be it calling someone a bigot, racist, or misogynist, these words are used to stifle any critique or careful inspection of feminism or whatever. Feminism and feminists are not above reproach.

 

I guess I am not as much as a "radical feminist" as some would make me out to be (LOL, I've never claimed to be radical, that was always someone else's assesment) cuz I never saw or was aware of these usages in this manner. Kinda like what Kitty posted, that it was used tongue in cheek.

<Shrug>

Maybe it'a a gen x thing. ?? I never remeber the word being used while I was in college. But that was last century.

 

I don't personally like to spell woman with a "y", but I don't see anything wrong with it. It's not about man hating, it's a different way to spell a word, for Christs sake. Why do people assume that everything feminists do are about being anti-men? Most feminist aren't anti-men. I'm not. I'm want gender equality, not female superiority.

Actually, most of the man haters I've spoken too aren't even really feminists, they're usually just teenagers who got dumped and want to take it out on the other guys.