I considered putting this in Great Debates, but I am hoping this will be suitable for IMHO. I’m not, after all, looking for a debate, just opinions.
During a little bit of Wikipedia browsing, I came across this article.
The gist of it: Some feminists prefer the spelling “womyn” for the word that is usually spelled as “woman” because of the word “man” embedded in the latter.
Dopers, what are your thoughts on this word and the concepts behind it?
Personally, I believe that it is a waste of effort for supporters of a good cause (gender equity, not revised spelling.) It seems silly quibbling about spelling rather than contributing to the cause in a more solid way. There exists a definite subset that will likely look at this effort as foolish and misguided and those who support the effort risk having their entire cause labeled foolish and misguided by association. Just my opinion. What say you.
shrug When someone does this, they probably have what they believe to be a good reason for it. I would get exercised if they tried to insist that anyone who spelt it “woman” was a tool of the patriarchy, but AFAIK this isn’t done. So I can’t get too excited.
As a female, I find it insulting, actually. Do we actually need to distance ourselves from men by not sharing the same letter sequence? Besides, the y actually makes it look Ye Olde Fassioned Spellin where there wasn’t a ‘right’ way to spell things.
No women would exist without the input of a man and no man would exist without the input of a woman, so it looks like we’re sorta stuck with each other.
“Womyn” and “wimmin” was briefly in vogue among a small subset of campus leftist newspapers, feminist radicals and Fidonet twits in the late 80s and early 90s. It’s pretty much fallen by the wayside for a decade now except perhaps among the looniest of toons.
Um… Excuse me! As long as we’re talking about it, I’d like to make a suggestion. ‘Menu’ is sexist! It should be person-u. Hello! And from now on your Sunday morning soup is ‘person-udo’.
I find it moronic. Much like when French Fries were renamed Freedom Fries a few years back, it takes an issue that may be serious and real, and turns it into a farce. It undermines the credibility of the instigators because it is so trivial, insignificant and pointless. Besides, I’m happy to consider myself (as a woman) to be a part of mankind, and I don’t think that indicates that I’m a subset or a deviation.
