# Ok! Okay! WOMYN....instead of WOMAN: Part II **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 22, 2003, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-okay-womyn-instead-of-woman-part-ii/190134 "2003-07-22T13:20:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-okay-womyn-instead-of-woman-part-ii/190134/41 "2003-07-22T18:40:33Z")
> [@](#): > > It belonged to one Ehlana Dykewomon. Ever since that day, I’ve been terrified of meeting Mz. Dykewomon, because there is simply no way I’d ever be able to keep a straight face when we were introduced. I remember hearing about a radical gay activist of some sort who changed his name to Luke Sissyfag. Later, he changed his name away from Luke Sissyfag and turned into some kind of arch conservative. _sigh_ Boy has issues. ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-okay-womyn-instead-of-woman-part-ii/190134/42 "2003-07-22T18:42:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Scylla \* > \*\*Then I pushed my luck and said jokingly that they oughtta keep a man around so at least one person in the group would have a brain. > > That didn’t go over so well. \*\* were you wearing your cute little “French Manservant” outfit at the time?? I’m sure that would have helped. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-okay-womyn-instead-of-woman-part-ii/190134/43 "2003-07-22T18:50:44Z")
Anyone who believes that social ills can be fixed by changing the spelling of “women” to “womyn” is beyond help. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-okay-womyn-instead-of-woman-part-ii/190134/44 "2003-07-22T18:57:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Miller \* > **Elana Dykewomon** Real person! Real name! [http://www.dykewomon.org/](http://www.dykewomon.org/) ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-okay-womyn-instead-of-woman-part-ii/190134/45 "2003-07-22T19:44:37Z")
Wow, thanks for the link, **dropzone**. Certainly not how I pictured Elana Dykewomon looking. For one thing, she’s smiling. As for the women in the OP, all I can say is, if you’re going to let everyone know exactly where your buttons are, don’t be surprised when someone tries pushing them. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Tiger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Mama\_Tiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Tiger)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-okay-womyn-instead-of-woman-part-ii/190134/46 "2003-07-22T19:52:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Thurgood \* > \*\*Sure, they’re all feminists-until it’s time to finish the back porch. \*\* Hey! Who just spent four days on her hands and knees, using power tools and everything, laying a floor in the downstairs of her house? I’m a feminist AND I like doing carpentry work. Some of us had fathers who taught us how to use tools! ---
**Author:** ![InTheField](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f05b48/32.png) [@InTheField](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InTheField)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-okay-womyn-instead-of-woman-part-ii/190134/47 "2003-07-22T19:56:59Z")
Q: How many militant feminist womyn does it take to change a lightbulb? A: One. And its not funny you pathetic mysogynous bastard! I know its an old joke but… ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-okay-womyn-instead-of-woman-part-ii/190134/48 "2003-07-22T21:00:31Z")
I think **Phlosphr** ’s comment was fine. It may indeed have been insulting, as **Ferret Herder** , says, but I don’t necessarially see anything wrong with that. If you think someone is being rediculous (as I think **Phlosphr** does in this case), there’s nothing wrong with letting someone know you think so. No, it’s not the nicest, fluffiest thing he could have done, but there’s no reason to feign respect for something one thinks is at the best silly and fanciful. ---
**Author:** ![margin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@margin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/margin)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-okay-womyn-instead-of-woman-part-ii/190134/49 "2003-07-22T21:35:58Z")
Ah, the ‘womyn’ crowd. Christ, I want a new political movement that will take as a plank common sense. That kind of thing always makes me feel that a blue-collar feminist like myself has abolutely no place in the woman’s movement. If you want real scary, go the Ms. bulletin board. Nothing can describe the crap that goes on there. ---
**Author:** ![catsix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@catsix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/catsix)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-okay-womyn-instead-of-woman-part-ii/190134/50 "2003-07-22T22:14:15Z")
So if women are supposed to be included in ALL medical research studies now, do you wonder if their presence will skew the results of prostate and/or testicular cancer research? ---
**Author:** ![TwistofFate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@TwistofFate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistofFate)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-okay-womyn-instead-of-woman-part-ii/190134/51 "2003-07-22T23:28:17Z")
> [@](#): > > If you want real scary, go the Ms. bulletin board. Nothing can describe the crap that goes on there. no thanks, we’ve already had one invasion from those idiots, and that was enough. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-okay-womyn-instead-of-woman-part-ii/190134/52 "2003-07-22T23:55:06Z")
Speaking as another liberal feminist, I have crafted several feminist web pages and essays in all of which I use the spellings wom **a** n and wom **e** n. I keep wonderyn whatever happened to the feminist spelling “wimmin.” It obviously lost the popularity contest with womyn, but it has a longer history in American dialectal writing, especially in Westerns. Calamity Jane and Annie Oakley were _wimmin_, by gum! ---
**Author:** ![margin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@margin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/margin)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2003, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-okay-womyn-instead-of-woman-part-ii/190134/53 "2003-07-23T00:43:35Z")
TwistofFate, when was this? I had an eye-opening experience where I casually tossed off a mention to being harassed by a recruiter in the military. I was called a liar, because I hadn’t come up with this immediately. The womyn on the thread speculated on what the harassment had been, and they got sexually explicit, even though I asked them not, repeatedly. They talked about parts of my body and speculated that I’d been brainwashed. The most disturbing thing about it was also the most subtle. I don’t call myself a victim, having moved on from what to me was merely a slapworthy incident. They were determined, however, to cast me as a victim, no matter what I wanted. And I just thought: you know, what would they do if every vicitim moved on without them? Where would their relevence be? It seemed to sum up that end of the intellectual spectrum right there. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Tiger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Mama\_Tiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Tiger)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2003, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-okay-womyn-instead-of-woman-part-ii/190134/54 "2003-07-23T00:50:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by catsix \* > \*\*So if women are supposed to be included in ALL medical research studies now, do you wonder if their presence will skew the results of prostate and/or testicular cancer research? \*\* Women and _minorities_, with a little common sense thrown in, **catsix** …funny thing is, this guy is now an academic physician, and every time his students come complaining to him about how much more of a PITA it is to have everyone represented in their research, he has to confess it’s all his fault! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Orange\_Skinner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3be4f8/32.png) [@Orange\_Skinner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orange_Skinner)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2003, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-okay-womyn-instead-of-woman-part-ii/190134/55 "2003-07-23T02:05:30Z")
Changing the spelling to womyn is even more ridiculous than turning “manhole” into “personhole.” And in my opinion, **Plosphr** , you weren’t out of line at all; you were obviously joking, and even if you weren’t, that comment was mild. Hell, I’d have ranked on them much harder than that, and I’m a girl. (Well, maybe I’d have ranked on her harder _because_ I’m a girl…and think that it’s radical feminists like that woman who took offence that make the rest of us look like hormone-ruled penis hating bitches). ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2003, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-okay-womyn-instead-of-woman-part-ii/190134/56 "2003-07-23T02:07:41Z")
My first thought when confronted with the “woman has man inside it” idea is, “But I LIKE having a man inside me!” Sadly, I have not had the opportunity to use this, nor do I have the nerve to, at least not face-to-face. When did feminist come to mean “man hating bitch,” anyway? I like men just fine. ---
**Author:** ![butter\_pie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aca169/32.png) [@butter\_pie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butter_pie)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2003, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-okay-womyn-instead-of-woman-part-ii/190134/57 "2003-07-23T06:14:45Z")
> [@](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > If you want real scary, go the Ms. bulletin board. Nothing can describe the crap that goes on there. > > \*Originally posted by TwistofFate \* > \*\*no thanks, we’ve already had one invasion from those idiots, and that was enough. \*\* What do the fine people at [Morgan-Stanley](http://www.ms.com) have against the SDMB? ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2003, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-okay-womyn-instead-of-woman-part-ii/190134/58 "2003-07-23T06:32:21Z")
I feel SO not up to date on “current” events. What the DEVIL does WOMYN stand for? I gather from the thread here that it’s some sort of feminist group that has changed the spelling of women to womyn, and hijacked it to use for their group. Right? Is womyn also an acronym for something? (I’m SO confused here :D) ---
**Author:** ![Already\_in\_Use](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@Already\_in\_Use](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Already_in_Use)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2003, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-okay-womyn-instead-of-woman-part-ii/190134/59 "2003-07-23T06:56:54Z")
Womyn = doubleplusungood. ---
**Author:** ![TwistofFate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@TwistofFate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistofFate)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2003, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-okay-womyn-instead-of-woman-part-ii/190134/60 "2003-07-23T10:40:20Z")
I can’t remember the dates, but I think one of our threads got highlighted over there, and lead to posters from there coming over here, and vice versa. The resulting offal flinging meltdown was a sight to behold. IMHO, Lets just say that they are WAY more insular and uptight than we are over here. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-okay-womyn-instead-of-woman-part-ii/190134.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-okay-womyn-instead-of-woman-part-ii/190134.md?page=4)