What’s in a name, grrrl?
Hymn book? Her book?
Cartoon showing woman asking booksller for her-books, as opposed to hymn-books from Library of Congress
Ovester? Semester?
Enid (from Legally Blonde): So I'm petitioning to have next term be referred to as the winter "ovester".
Potaytohs? Potahtohs?
What’s behind a name and why after all these years are we still having discussions about nomenclature as it pertains to gender integration—especially in the most rapidly evolving arena in our society, technology?
Damned if I know. Although it might just unleash my inner riot grrrl.
I recently bumped into this video by Caroline Drucker and seeing as it relates to the obsession with the word “GIRL” as oppposed to “WOMAN” to define a female in the professional environment I found it very pertinent to my (not-so) ongoing discussion of words and their use.
Now, while I don’t particularly mind being called a girl in my day to day life BY MY FELLOW FEMALES, it does irk me to be referred to as a girl in a professional context and even by men in my day to day life. This isn’t so much a gender equality issue for me, just an “I look really young and I still get snubbed and patronized at the grocery store when I try to buy a bottle of wine” issue.* Come to think of it, I feel like the word seems to undermine my potential and my ability to do things. But again, I come at it from a different perspective. I’ve also worked in estrogen-heavy environments, so my experience with the word “girl” at work in this particular discriminatory context is not relevant.
I do understand the principle of the lecture, though. That perhaps in an environment (the office environment) where nomenclature, titles, and rank do define you and catapult you into situations that are unfavorable/favorable, using the term “WOMAN” as a shield might be useful.
What do you think? (You are allowed to give opinions even if you are not a menstruating tax-payer).
BONUS!!!
Brit-Brit Discovering she’s not a girl….
But not yet a woman.
Intrigued?
Also–she turns the tables on men:
* Side note: If I were really underage don’t you think I’d try to buy something a little stronger and cheaper?
** Side-side note: When I bought my car a few years ago I got a very long lecture from the car salesman about the responsibility of driving, etc. Even though I’ve been driving for YEARS. It turns out the man thought I was 15…
