It’s just all about what you see in the word. You could say “woman” is man* with extra added*, just as women are superior to men. All in the perspective.
Yt’s fyckyn’ stypyd.
No no no, they’ve got it all wrong. ‘Woman’ has five letters and ‘man’ has three; therefore, men are less than women.
I haven’t seen “womyn” in the wild for 20ish years, and it wasn’t common or then. It was very, very, very infrequently used.
Today, it’s frequently a strawman argument “look at how unreasonable those feminsts are; they want to change our language.” When I see it, I tend to think slightly negatively against the person who brought it up (who is usually unprovokedly arguing against feminism).
FTR, Tim Allen did not invent the word ‘masculinist’
There was an article in Mad Magazine around 1969 that did a simple role reversal on various familiar situations that changing sex roles might create.
I remember:
A group of female construction workers comment on a man walking by: “Get a load of the pair of shoulders on that one!”
A group of senior-looking military brass. All females. One of them declares: “We all know there are some things women do better than men, but if we say so, we’ll have these masculinists on our backs!”
If I were to ever start a Skynyrd cover band…I’d already have the name ready now. Womyn and Gentlemyn, please welcome…Fyckyn Stypyd!
We’d have an awesome cover of Free Byrd.
Yf Y lyv hyr tomorrow, would you styll rymymbyr me…
I was shocked to see that Carleton University has a Womyn’s Centre. Apparently the name is still used. I think it’s the only time I saw this word used in a serious way.
And what is the connotation of this spelling?
Ah, cool. In any case, the first place I saw the concept was when I read “Never Stand Too Close To A Naked Man” when I was in the 7th grade. I think it’s the perfect book for boys in about that point in their life, personally. I liked it a lot more than his second book “I’m Not Even Here”, a discussion of his midlife crisis, the Mormon Church, and Quantum Physics (and yes, it did all tie together and make sense the way he wrote it 
)
Ugh, under their “Why a Womyn Center” and why “Womyn with a Y”:
:rolleyes:
I suppose there’s some small chance she used to be named “Dykeman.” But more than likely she made up the whole she-bang in an effusive paroxysm of dykewomonly archetypal feeling. It’d be like me renaming myself Doug Heterodude. :dubious:
The problem with womyn (womon, etc.) is it’s not a word. It’s more of a wurd.
Basically, it’s a cute way of aluding either to Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia when talking about the US (presumably when you’re unhappy with what the US government happens to be doing when you spell it such.)
Are you discussing this matter rationally? That’s not permitted. You will jump on the rage bandwagon now.
Oh, and Guin: That quote is freakin’ dire. This is at a college? Don’t they have, you know, linguists on staff who can explain what the “wo” part means? I guess there are always a few people who are so wrapped up in their ideology that they’ll make up bizarre stories like that. Ugh.
Hey, what do you want from me? Yeah, I’m a wit, but I only work at it part-time…
Yeah, that’s the way I see it, too. Somebody wants to pick a fight on their terms, and they’re using one of the dumber things feminists have ever done to start things up. I think “womyn” was one of those cases where some feminists carefully took aim and shot their whole movement in the foot, without meaning to of course. We (feminists and persons sympathetic to their cause) coulda done without it.
Along the same lines, gays are gonna get the shit beat out of them in the marketplace of ideas if Rove or Falwell ever catch on to the propoganda value of the fact that some gays use “breeder” as a derogatory turn for hetero couples who have babies.
Well, I just googled “womyn” and it does appear to be still in use. For example : the Michigan’s Womyn’s Music Festival
Means both “woman” and “wife”, actually. But then, “señora” means both “lady” and “wife”; “doña” is both the term used before a female’s name to indicate special respect (Doña Isabel) and another term for “wife”…
Basically, in Spanish any term that can be used only to refer to a female of the human species, can be used to mean “wife” by attaching the proper article to it. Any term that can be used only for male members of the species, can be used to mean “husband”.
Any of those terms have an article in front, when used to mean spouse. “Mi señora”, my wife; “la doña”, again my wife and he’s being somewhat sarcastic; “el jefe”, my husband.
As for wymmyn and girlz - I’ve got it complicated enough to get myself classified under “woman” and not “girl” (and I’m 38, FGS!), I’d rather not get more little boxes to escape from, ok?
Excellent article on the state of feminism (standing side-by-side with woman-hating Hezbollah) from yesterday’s Sunday Times: Wimmin at War.
I’ve seen writings from various “Black Power” extremist radical groups who spell it “Amerikkka” to get the KKK in there.
While the whole “womyn” spelling is seen as ridiculous, these same women started the movement to make the language more inclusive, and to stop calling grown up female people “girls.” So it’s a good tradeoff.
I’m a card carrying member of NOW with a minor in Women’s Studies from a liberal Midwestern college in the Mid-80s.
Stupid then, stupid now. Frankly, there are far more important battles to fight - frankly, this one isn’t even important.