Led me to thinking of other ways in which language has gone all . . . different. How things have changed over the years.
I’m interested a little bit in the terms that used to have a gender connotation but no longer do. “Aviator,” for example, was the masculine counterpart to “aviatrix.” That latter term seems to have disappeared with Amelia Earhart, as cskinner probably knows. In fact, we don’t use that “-rix” ending to feminize anything anymore, really. Presumably you could have a “bloviatrix” or an “editrix.” (I guess here in the San Francisco area we still have a fairly active population of those who call themselves “dominatrix”…)
Gotta also respect the Japanese, very gender-specific in almost every other way (as I understand it), for having an ungendered honorific – “san” – instead of our “Mr.” and “Mrs.”, and “Ms.” – or “senor,” “senora,” and “senorita” – these examples being even more sexist, of course, in that they distinguish not only between men and women but also between married and unmarried women. But not married and unmarried men.
And again here in San Francisco there are probably lots of people who would tell us that there are more than two sexes. They are the same people who get angry at me for trying to distinguish between “sex” and “gender,” who get really mad if I try to give a basic lesson in chromosomes. They really hate that.
But you know, if I were the kind of person who put out fires for a living, I would totally rather be known as a “fire fighter” than a “fireman.” “Fire fighter” = much cooler.
English has terms for both unmarried men and unmarried women, though only the latter is widely used anymore. Unmarried men are “master” and unmarried women are “miss.” Formal invitations in the South are still addressed to “Master so-and-so.”
I detest “Ms”. Such an ugly, contrived little word. It sounds like some old cowboy from a bad western trying to say “Mrs”. I’m Mrs Nickel, and my daughter is Miss Nickel.
The “feminine” endings to certain words denoting occupation were themselves rather contrived, and I’m just as glad to see them disappearing. There’s nothing about the words “actor,” “aviator” or “waiter” that indicate the sex of the person doing the job, and thus no reason to add a feminine ending.
The Chinese have a history of being pretty sexist, but the Chinese languages have gender-free pronouns.
All this goes to show that language isn’t quite as important to attitudes as many assume. I seriously doubt that you can change a person’s attitudes simply by changing its language. However, you can at least bring unconscious attitudes to a person’s attention by focusing on its language. Then it may at least consider whether it needs to change, itself.
(Isn’t “it” much nicer than “he or she” , or the aesthetically offensive “s/he”?)
I prefer the generic “he,” which serves equally well when the gender is unknown. In most languages, the masculine form is also the default. “It” is unacceptable unless one is speaking of inanimate objects…I find it much more aesthetically offensive than “s/he” (which I only find faintly ridiculous).
Notice the difference of effect between Tyndale’s version of the first four verses of St. John’s Gospel and that of the Authorized Version.
Tyndale.
In the beginning was the word, and that word was with God: and God was that word.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by it, and without it, was made no thing, that made was.
In it was life; And the life was the light of men;
Authorized.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
Just a couple of points. Correctly used the terms master and mister in English should refer to age, not marital status.
On the female side of things the terms Miss, Mrs, and Ms are not in fact words. They are abbreviations of the word mistress and, more importantly, are completely interchangeable regardless of marital status. However, be warned, if you intend to point this out to someone who’s insisting on using a particular one of these you’d better be ready to duck and cover.
True. The same is true, however, of “senora” and “senorita” in Spanish. When we visited Colombia, I was “Senorita” Nickel, to distinguish me from my mother in law, “Senora” Nickel. In the same way, my hubby will always be “Nino Tony” to the people who worked with his parents down there, even though he’s 47! (sorry, btw…I can’t get the tildes to work)
“Miss” and “Mrs” are abbreviations of “Mistress,” but “Ms” is a contrived word that the feminists foisted on us in the 70s.
Moving to yet another language, Irish doesn’t actually have native forms of “Mr.”, “Mrs” and “Miss,” …for those who find such terms awkward. In formal correspondence, one might use “fear uasal,” “bean uasal,” or “duine uasal” (noble man, noble woman, or noble person), but they’re not used casually…I wouldn’t introduce my father, say, to someone as “an fear uasal Wilkerson.”
Surnames, however, make the gender of the bearer very clear…mens’ names are prefixed with “Mac” or “Ó” (“son of” or “descendent of”), women using their maiden names are prefixed with “Nic” or “Ní” (“daughter of”…“Ní” being the form used with “Ó” names), and married women using their husband’s names are “Mhic” or “Uí” (genitive forms of “Mac” and “Ó”).
It also lacks words for “yes” and “no”! You say “yes” by restating the verb and “no” by negating it. Definitely makes for active listening!
I caught our leather-clad, aggressive types in the initial post, Dr. Stone.
Somehow “dominatrix” and “Madame Chairperson” seem to go well together. “Yes, Madame Chairperson! May I have another?”
He’s now our Governator. He does seem to have run out of trix, of late, too, though some think there are some still up his sleeve. I think the bulges are just blunt muscle, though.
Is the Matrix a feminine version of reality? Nothing there is ever as it seems, after all.
Masseuse: pronounced “masoose” in the US, and unaccountably used in referring to males of the profession. I have given up all hope of stemming the tide.
Waitron: when I was waiting tables, I liked this gender-inclusive term. Since I pronounced it “way-trahn”, it made me feel like an android or something. “Server” sounds like a shovel.
