Herstory?

[SammyBlue]

Okay. . .this is disgusting. . .you can't accept the His in history? Why are we changing the language???

on edit: This bug up my ass came listening to the woman on Randi Rhodes. The "Herstory?" Give me a fucking break!!!

[pocket]

1. Why not make it gender neutral?

Not that I have a good replacement word at the moment.

Hystory?

[seabeyond]

2. who the f* cares. stupid. as a woman i get pissed at a woman

being denied an after pill when she has been raped in a huge city like tuscon

this post is what repugs always bring up to make a dem look bad. to bring all the woes of our nation, to this.

bullshit

[SammyBlue]

8. Why not try to understand that certain words shouldn't invoke gender.

I believe mankind ought to be humankind. . .I believe that spokesman ought to be spokesperson.

But it is not a person-hole cover.

It's not the boogie person

It's not the person on the moon.

It's not "come back here and fight like a person."

It's not "for it's a jolly old person."

I'm a fan of linguists. Context. Herstory is moronic. Hystory is even dumber.

[Shakespeare]

10. There's no gender involved at all. Check the etymology.

I'm as hardcore a feminist as you'll run into, but the whole "herstory" thing is just idiotic.

history
1390, "relation of incidents" (true or false), from O.Fr. historie, from L. historia "narrative, account, tale, story," from Gk. historia "a learning or knowing by inquiry, history, record, narrative," from historein "inquire," from histor "wise man, judge," from PIE *wid-tor-, from base *weid- "to know," lit. "to see" (see vision). Related to Gk. idein "to see," and to eidenai "to know." In M.E., not differentiated from story; sense of "record of past events" probably first attested 1485. Sense of "systematic account (without reference to time) of a set of natural phenomena" (1567) is now obs. except in natural history. What is historic (1669) is noted or celebrated in history; what is historical (1561) deals with history. Historian "writer of history in the higher sense," distinguished from a mere annalist or chronicler, is from 1531.

edited to include link:

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=history&searchmode=none

[Zynx]

13. Indeed. In Spanish the word is historia and "his" means nothing in Spanish

[Teaser]

12. It IS Gender neutral. There is no "his" in "history".

The word Greek "historia" has nothing to do with the english word "his".

Nothing. It comes from the root: historein (to make inquiry).

Indeed, it may be cognate with the IE root "wis/wit/wid" (root of wisdom, speculated to be the source of the word "witch" by some (although I remain agnostic on that.)

This issue is a waste of time. Find real injustices, not made up ones.

[Realityhack]

30. Right on!

People forget where our language came from and right bias into terms that actualy ARE gender nutral.
There is plenty of actual real bias to fight without making shit up.

[Zynx]

3. Good. F@*king. Grief.

I have problems with a lot of words, but I am not going to be sitting around revising the English language.

[Sugar Smack]

21. This is not really that big a deal.

Some people want to get creative. Who gives a rat's?

[Zynx]

23. I don't like it when people mess around with the language for ideological

, or false ideological reasons in this case. "His" being in History has as much to do with the entymology of the word as "she" being in shepard.

[Sugar Smack]

24. Point is-

fine if some people want to employ that bent on the English language. I'm from a family of linguists. My father was a professor of linguistics. As a rule, people don't care about that. There's a subset of people who craft words to accompany their lifestyles. You probably shouldn't let it bother you.

[Zynx]

26. I just don't like people changing words for political purposes.

It bothers me more than just a little bit.

[Sugar Smack]

29. I understand how it may seem manipulative

but you don't have to be manipulated by it! :-) You can just chalk it up to something- desperation or a battle- but just keep your sights on us DEMS, ok? ;)

[Realityhack]

31. I do.

the term actualy IS gender nutral in origin. Claiming it isn't is intelectualy dishonest and makes people look sexist who aren't. It is also an invented issue when there are plenty of real issues (like say what is actualy taught in history classes). Getting that hung up on imaginary linguistic slights detracts from serious debate about gender equality etc.

[htuttle]

4. Did you come across something written by Mary Daly recently or something?

If not, you might try reading her. Might do you some good.

Or not.

:shrug:

[LostInAnomie]

5. I always thought it was a silly point to make.

I am no expert on word origins but I am willing to bet the "his" in "history" has nothing to do with the male gender.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

6. Are we certain

about the origin of the word? Is the "his" in history really the possessive male pronoun?

I remember someone on TV once getting criticized for saying "niggardly" and it isn't even remotely connected to the "n" word, except it sounds like it.

One thing as I teacher I DO try to do is avoid saying "mankind" because as a little girl that bugged me. I say "humankind."

[Igel]

19. Actually we're quite sure that there is no 'his' in

history, except that it's a toxic pun.

There's something called an 'embedded word', things like lamb/lampost or ham/hamster. Simple-minded grammatical theories say that there is 'ham' in 'hamster', but English speakers don't make the mistake of confusing the two.

[Sugar Smack]

22. LOL! Quit referring to "ham"!

:rofl:

I would prefer you pronounce it "muenster".

BTW, I think this whole thread's a bit silly. I think we should pick our battles.

Thanks for the laugh, igil! :rofl:

[McKenzie]

7. "History" means "The study of the past using written records."

it is not gender-specific.

[onenote]

9. now don't throw a hersy fit about it...

[pop goes the weasel]

11. you get disgusted easily

It's just a play on words to emphasize talking about women in history. Nobody is trying to castrate you or "change" the English language (and if it changes, that's what happens with living languages). Sheesh. It's supposed to be a mild bit of politically aware humor.

[SammyBlue]

14. It's not funny. . .and too many people agree with this clap trap.

Changing language and taking the life out of life.

[pop goes the weasel]

17. get yourself a beer and lighten up

It's a freaking play on words. You say you care about linguistics, then you should know that people coin new terms all the time and put new spin on old ones. The term "herstory" has been around since at least the 1970s, so you are a little late to this party, and way too late to get it out of the language.

Taking the life out of life? Give me a break! Does this really kill you, that sometimes people talk about women's history in terms of "herstory," a pun that only makes sense in English? Do I hear you screaming about "Fitzmas"? How do you feel about "blog"? If neologisms and puns kill you, you are dead a thousand times a day.

[Sugar Smack]

15. Who's "we"?

Are there a lot of people in your life who are passionately lobbying for changing the language, whose relationship with you might be put assunder if you insist on not conforming to theirs? If not, let it go.

[wrathofkahn]

16. What a load of shit!

I'm absolutely sick of the bastardization of the English language.


Perhaps she could bother to learn the origin of words before making her broad-sweeping decision that the rest of us aren't allowed to say them because she's randomly chosen to make herself offended by a thousand-of-years-old word.

Sorry, lady (to whomever the crazy was on Randi's show), but you can take your "herstory" and shove it up your ass. Why don't you just go ahead and start calling it "unperson" and "doubleplusungood" while you're at it.



It's well past time for this stupidity to end.

[Sugar Smack]

20. eh, I hate euphemisms as much as the next person

but I only run into one person in a thousand who employs gender-specific euphemisms. I don't let it bother me.

[libnnc]

18. Of all the things happening in the world right now

right this minute, and you're pissed about linguistics?!?!?

Priorities, MAN! :crazy:

[democracyindanger]

25. Sure, as long as we change "menopause."

[Warren DeMontague]

27. I like "Mystory"

I want ALL the credit. Y'all can go screw yourselves.

[deadparrot]

28. That's going overboard.

Considering the roots of the word don't even go back to the pronoun "his." Sorry, IMHO, it's ridiculously silly.