Sunday, January 29, 2012

How do feminists spell 'insecurity'? w-o-m-y-n

At the peak of the "Women's Movement" in the 1970s, the particularly angriest members of that movement hatched the brilliant idea of changing the spelling of "woman" to "womyn", to make clear that a woman is in no way a man. Well, thank you, feminists, for enlightening us. How else would we otherwise have ever known that men and women are different? Other spelling suggestions include "wimmin", "womban" and "wom!n".

Rightly so, this spurred a lot of eye-rolling at the time by the more logical members of society, but plenty of women embraced the idea. In Canada, one university named its women's center "The University of Waterloo Womyn's Centre". But in 2006, the student council actually voted to replace the "y" with an "e", returning it to the more conventional spelling, and by default, scored a major point for common sense.

Could this signal a new trend, that feminist hysteria is giving way to calmer, more rational thinking? One could hope. But if one local university is any example, that hope is quickly dashed. From the same university that recently expelled a student for her biblical views on homosexuality (which was overturned by a judge, thankfully), some students report that the advocacy of using the gender-neutral "womyn" is alive and well (and if that's the case at this school, it probably is the case elsewhere).

Feminists claim that dissociating themselves from men in all ways, including having any reference to "man" or "men" in certain words, will assert their independence and strength. But don't they realize that focusing on such unimportant matters actually only makes them look weak and insecure in who they are?




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1 comment:

  1. I find it sad that some feel it necessary to change the spelling of woman/women or other words that include any reference to men/man/son, etc. I am a woman confident in my identity as just that - a woman. Changing the (a) to a (y)is in no way going to liberate me any more than I already am. I am confident in myself as a person (or should I say persun) and changing spellings of words will not change my current status, which is one of dignity, confidence, and respect for myself.

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