I have started a family history blog, and I want to write about some letters that my great great grandmother penned in the 1920s. In one of them, she talks about her grandmother being a “jewess”. I know it is an outdated and offensive term, but I don’t know if it’s “From a 90 year old letter so let it slide” offensive, or if it’s “Blacklist the site and boycott it, call for the author to be hung, drawn and quartered” offensive.
Rather than reprinting the letter in full, I could quote from it and paraphrase to say her grandmother was [Jewish], but I did want to include an image of the letter which would obviously show the real wording.
I don’t love the idea of editing history, but I hate the idea of casually offending people.
I would react exactly the same as if I saw “My great great grandmother was a Negro.” It’s a term that’s not in use and marks the speaker as oddly out of touch if they were speaking now, but in a old letter? Not weird at all.
When I Google for a definition, most results say it is “outdated; offensive”. Without context, I can’t tell if it is awkward and outdated along the lines of Negro or Oriental, or outright offensive like other words that describe those two races.
To have a separate morphology for the female has ties to animal husbandry and the way animals are referred to when they’re raised as property: bull-cow; cock-hen; etc. The underlying ideology of such word forms is that the referent is less than human.
Yes. Having words like “duke” and “duchess” implies that nobility are one step above cattle. See also “hunter”/“huntress”, “sculptor”/“sculptress” and countless others. Also “stag”/“hind”, “cob”/“pen” (swans being well-known farm critters and all), “lion”/“lioness”…
Admittedly the only reason I would ever use the word “negress” is to provide another answer to the riddle “When is a door not a door?”.
I think its fine to use if your quoting a letter from the 1920’s. It’s mildly offensive today (I think mainly because it evokes the Jewish American Princess stereotype rather then simply because its old-timey, google the old SNL “Jewess Jeans” bit for an example), but not so much that you have to tip-toe around it if its clear your writing about a historical use of the word.
FWIW, when a simulacrum of Abraham Lincoln visited the Starship Enterprise in the 23rd century, he identified Lt. Uhura as a “Negress” but then immediately apologized, recognizing his language to be inappropriate.
And if she had talked about her grandfather being a Jew, would that also offend the family members who read your blog? If so, they have problem…and it’s not a problem of language.
The “ess” ending is archaic. But it is not offensive.
It’s simply the way language was used in the 1920’s.It was natural for them.
Many of us Dopers remember using the “ess” suffix, too. For example, host and hostess of a party(widely used till the 1960’s), or waiter and waitress (widely used till the 1980’s).
This is the real issue. Today,it is wildly impolite in American society to mention anyone’s ethnic background, even when it’s relevant. But if you’re researching family history, the whole point is to identify your ethnic background, right?
Publish the letter in your blog. It’s history, it’s accurate, and it’s nothing to be ashamed of.
I think you’d be perfectly acceptable quoting an old letter using the word ‘jewess’ at this point. I’d find that acceptable. Using it in casual speech these days is contraindicated, however.
I really don’t see the problem here. Of course, a lot of people don’t grasp historical context. I say go ahead and publish an image of the letter and if you feel it would be a good addition add that the term “Jewess” was commonly used at the time although today it’s considered archaic and is mildly offensive to some people.
No. This is not about my family being offended to have a Jewish ancestor. If any of them react like that, they’re welcome to stop reading my blog.
This is about several dictionaries identifying the word “Jewess” as “offensive” (none say “Jew” is offensive). They don’t say how offensive. Is it like “Negro” - dated, slightly racist, but not the end of the world if you’re talking about someone saying it in the twenties? Or like that other N word that I choose not to use, and, IMO, utterly unacceptable on a family friendly site? Consensus seems to be more like the former than the latter.
I’m now going to go with the paragraph as written - but eliminating the reference to Judaism altogether wasn’t ever my plan. I would have just said the letter references her grandmother being Jewish.
It’s like “negro”. Dated, slightly racist and a sizable number of the people it refers to likely won’t take offense in the context you’re talking about.
Since when did the “ess” suffix go out of use, except in cases of describing race?
People use waitress, hostess, stewardess, duchess, seamstress, mistress, heiress and plenty of other words ending in "ess"as a female indicator in everyday conversation all the time, and nobody’s offended.
I suppose there are some rather absurd sorts who find it offensive, but it’s silly- it’s a perfectly legitimate suffix that describes the gender of something. Granted, it may not be necessary to denote the gender, but that’s all the suffix does. It doesn’t put the person on the same level as livestock, and it’s not prima facie offensive either.
Even the terms “jewess” and “negress” are more archaic than anything. They weren’t ever meant to be derogatory or insulting, so taking umbrage at their use is a bit silly.