Does anyone else here feel depressed because everything always refers to men? Here's a couple of examples: "all men are created equal" and "brotherhood of man". I just don't understand why its so hard to say "people" instead of "men", or why it would be so terrible if we said "family" instead of "brotherhood". I mean it really hurts to not even be included. How can you not feel like a second class citizen? This is something that I run into almost every day. However, the reason I am thinking about it right this second is because I was watching a show about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. the other week. One guy was saying how hard it was to watch all of his brothers treated badly, but didn't mention how it felt to see his sisters treated even worse...really during the whole show people referred to people in general as "men". In MLK's speeches he refers to black men and white men getting along, but not about black *people* and white *people* getting along. Even the great leaders of peace didn't feel it was necessary to include women! Another thing that eats away at me is the way people refer to general groups of women as "those bitches". Or just to casually refer to a woman they don't know as "this bitch". Its not even considered an insult or disrespectful, its just another word for woman I feel the need to share...because this has been weighing on my soul for a long time. You can't just talk about stuff like this because people can get very defensive about what they've always known. I've had people jump all over me because I started talking about how sad it all makes me. People always assume feminists are just angry and want to shake things up because they "hate men"....do they not realize most of us have to 'shake things up' because the world as it is makes us feel like we don't belong? I have no idea if I've explained myself well or not. I've never been good with words. I can only hope someone who feels the same way will see this and help me explain it better
^^What she said. "He or she" takes too long. Besides, I'm pretty sure there are bigger issues in women's rights than pronouns...Also, the world doesn't make you feel like you don't belong. You do.
When in such a situation, I usually use the pronoun "he." But then I just do that because I have to pick a gender and my professors are either completly indifferent to such things or complete psycho-feminists who blast me if I even mention males favorably. I love torturing the second group. I am very much a feminist, but anyone who takes himself that seriously is just another bit of food for my sadistic amusement. The only way to have more fun is to refer to everyone as "it," but that one actually can get me in trouble academically.
well, look at it only from the literary perspective. convenient? yes! but more than that look at the base languages. i'll use spanish because its easy, but the latin languages are all so similar, it applies. Padre is father, Madre is mother, and los Padres parents. it is simplified, but its just language. im a little loopy on cough medicine, but try not to attach too much meaning to words. the words don't MEAN anything, they represent other things. they are reminders of an idea or a concept or an item. the word 'chair' is not the chair. the object is the chair, sort of a 'rose by any other name would smell as sweet" thing. if you call a chair a rug, is it still a 'chair'? no, now its a 'rug' but the object itself is no different.
Well, there's a lot less of this these days than there used to be. Chairperson, flight attendant, fire fighter, police officer. Used to be chairman, stewardess, fireman, and policeman.
"i wouldn't let it bug you. it's just a literary convenience." No. It should bug you. It just perpetuates men being default and women being "the other." Words ARE important.
