Ladies I have a question for you. Do you advocate the ‘new’ spelling of Woman to become Womyn with a ‘y’. Basically to get rid of anything that has to do with a man. Here is a little history for why I ask:
I am a grown man visiting his mother for the weekend, I live out of town. My mother is a true scorned woman. She was cheated on by my father some 15 years ago and now hates most men. My relationship with my Dad started off pretty bad right after the whole incident but has gotten better over the years. FIFTEEN FRIGGING YEARS LATER!!! My mother still can not stand men. This is fine. But fucking stop asking me how my relationship with his ‘new’ wife is and other such lunacies. Also when you know I am coming over for the weekend, HAVE THE MEN BASHING, SCORNED WOMAN SUPPORT GROUP A DIFFERENT WEEKEND!!!
The topic of their discussion last weekend was the movement to change the spelling of woman to womyn to get rid of any semblance of man… Ladies WTF!!! My own wife has said that this is quite ludicrous, does anyone else feel that way. Personally I don’t care if they change it or not. Doubt it would ever actually happen, but I personally don’t care. What say the teeming masses of peoples out there?
Heck, soon someone’ll get the bright idea to change the spelling of huma/e/i/o/u/yn.
Then again, most things that smack of rather militant feminism seem a bit ludicrous to me. Perhaps overexposure to that sort of thing growing up. shrug
I think that’s bullshit. Since when is “a” the province of men? Isn’t it usually in Romance languages considered a signifier for the feminine aspect of words? And really superficial changes in spelling don’t mean a damn thing if women are still treated like second class citizens. We all have to live on this planet, men and women, and we’d just better learn to get along. I’m sorry your mom’s had a difficult time with relationships and men. I think her asking about the new “wife” just demonstrates that she loved your dad a lot, and he really hurt her. I’m not trying to get in your or your mother’s business, but I hope she gets some kind of counseling to help her deal with the anger and hurt that she’s let build up over 15 years. The only person she’s really hurting with all that male-bashing you describe is herself. I hope she can get to the point of just living her life and taking men on a case by case basis. I wish you and your mom well, Philosphr.
Thanks Celestina for your kind words…I used to think she would get over it sooner or later. But she has some of her dearest friends fueling the fires. It is like a no win situation, they all got divorced unders similar circumstances, within 6 months of each other. Some of them date others don’t. My mother has sought outside help for herself, she is actually open to it. But the woman she went to for counseling lead her to the ‘support/bash’ group she is in now. I should clarify they don’t always bash men. They do help quite a few women who are going thru divorce and other such issues. I just can’t stand being around them when I go to visit. I mean I do not legitimately need to hear any of that. Of course when I popped my head in the door the mood in the room switched from bash bash bash to “Ohhh how are you doing? How’s your new little wife??” I stayed reletively irked but I think they meant well…
Huh, why not just think of “man” being derived from "woman. In fact, I think that “man” should be changed to “myn” and “woman” should remain the same. Women have had to change for men often enough. Lets let to guys change for us.
Mr. Gretchen and I use this as a short hand to describe that “certain kind of female” - you know, angry and raging that she is a Strong Woman who won’t take That Kind of Crap from You, yet insisting that she has been victimized by a male dominated society. Essentially, the kind of broad who can’t be pleased by anyone
As for the OP, chalk up one more vote in favour of “ridiculous”.
Miss Gretchen
Who just left a job where she was the sole female among 150 men and did just fine, thank you very much.
"It was one of these womyn-with-a-‘y’ productions. Do you know what this is? Well, there’s this whole little lesbian sect that thinks you have to take the ‘man’ out of ‘woman,’ so they spell it ‘womYn’. These womyn have too much time on their hands.
"Oh, and then they can’t agree on how it’s spelled! Is it ‘womyn’? Is it ‘womon’? ‘wimmin’? It’s like, I’m not a lesbian, I’m a thesaurus!
“Here’s my favourite - ‘womban’. Yeah. ‘woooooooooooomban.’”
Lea DeLaria
Actually, I kind of like ‘womyn’. I think it’s cute, like ‘boi’ or ‘grrl’. I think it is possible just to take it a teeeeense too seriously, however.
I’m an unapologetic feminist but think the “womyn” stuff is stupid as well as hateful. First off, there are a helluva lot better things to worry about. Second, anything that deliberately tries to pit half of humanity against the other half is pointless, damaging and plain wrong. Oh well, there are wingnuts in any “ism”, I guess.
As to your mother, well, she sounds like she’s more than a little messed up about this. (Newsflash, hmmm?) One man causing her pain isn’t a free ride to assume illwill, dishonor and malicousness onto half of the goddamned human race. I doubt trying to reason with her would do a bit of good, since she’s operating from emotion rather than reason. But maybe you turn that to good account. Just state how awful her prejudice makes YOU feel. After all, if her feelings aren’t debatable, neither are yours.
Reminds me of a cartoon on my dad’s office door. A guy is painting restroom signs. He has already painted “Womyn” and is just finishing the “Myn” sign. There is a wom(y)n watching him in exasperation and saying, “I think you’re missing the point!”
Also, Is “womyn” supposed to be both singular and plural? Or is more than one “womyns”?
Well jlzania First off she isn’t A. New (We’ve been married for 5 years and B. she’s not exactly little, barely fringes on being petite. This was said when I walked in the door by those malicious fem’s to insight a little argument or to see my reaction. They are all most likely very jealous that I have an honest happy wholesome marriage. And they like the chance to poke a little fun when they get the chance. I pay no mind to what they say or do. (though as everyone can see I do infact get more than a little irked) but I’ll be damed if I let on that I am.
Thanks for the good tidings from everyone though. She may change one of these years. She does on occasion talk about meeting a Greek guy and going to live on Crete… Its kinda funny when she says things like that, cause I usually don’t believe a word of it… ;)
Speaking as a very nitpicky feminist, no I don’t think the word should be changed.
It’s not offensive. We’re of the same species.
Although it does sound like you harbor some resentment towards feminists. I seriously doubt a feminist, man hating bitch would have called your partner your “little wife”.
It’s funny how some people who want to “take the man out of woman” don’t even do their homework. According to my copy of
The New Lexicon Webster’s Encyclopedic Dictionary of the English Language (Deluxe Edition):
woman: O.F. (Old French) wifmann; wif= a female, mann= human being (there’s supposed to be a little straight line over the i)
Also with regards to the word MENstruate, “it derives from the name of the Roman Goddess of the ‘right moment’.” (from The Book of Goddesses and Heroines by Patricia Monaghan).
I think all the different spellings (wimmin, wemoon, wombon, etc) are kinda silly, but I do like ‘womyn’. I just like the way it looks, I guess. But it has nothing to do with how I feel about men or feminism or anything.
