Posted on 05/10/2011 8:03:30 AM PDT by reaganaut1
Leni
Now THAT is funny.
Back in the early Clinton years, I took a trip to the Smithsonian. Went to the Museum of Natural History as part of the tour. I'll never forget as I'm walking around looking at the exhibits they had one of those 'prohibited' signs
over the word "MANKIND" at some of the exhibits. Underneath the sign were the words "Help stamp out sexism in science".
It was truly a barf alert moment.
Grandyoungerrelative dammit! Grandyoungerrelative!!!!
I typically respond by telling them that I speak the English language; and by asking them what language it is that they think they're speaking ... cuz it ain't English.
I beg to differ.
"Firefighter" refers to one who battles a forest fire.
"Fireman" is a person who serves a municipality and who battles urban fires.
I can speak for German.
The German language has three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter.
As Mark Twain famously pointed out in his essay "The Awful German Language" (part of "A Tramp Abroad"), there are numerous examples of nouns not at all corresponding to their grammatic genders (the word for "turnip," for example, is feminine, while the word for "girl" is neuter).
Many occupational designations end in "-er" (e.g., "der Lehrer" = "the teacher"), and can be simply femininized by adding "-in": "der Lehrer" then becomes "die Lehrerin."
So in most cases, it's possible to feminize words without too much clumsiness.
The problems start when writers insist upon feminizing the PLURAL so that both genders are accounted for: "die LehrerInnen" (= "teacher/Esses") - even though, according to standard rules, the Plural can account for both sexes / mixed groups.
And the situation gets really silly when nouns which are NEUTRAL are forceably feminized, as with the neutral word "Mitglied" ("i.e., "member" - as in "member of a club or organization"), the Plural of which is "Mitglieder." Because the Singular "Mitglied" is pluralized by adding "-er," and "-er" LOOKS like a masculine ending, they twist this into "MitgliederInnen."
As a side note, the (neutral) noun "das Fräulein" ("the young lady" or "Miss" as an honorific / form of address) has become taboo, since it is a diminutive of "Frau," and is hence regarded as condescending. Only my gray temples protect me from contemptuous looks when I address, e.g., waitresses ("servers?"; ""serveresses?") using this now antiquated form of address.
Regards,
In fact, on 9/11, when I heard that “firefighter” were on the scene, I wondered how they got there from Colorado so fast.
Rug munchers.
It figures.
Homosexualism destroys society.
So she was ground zero for the feminazi movement? Good riddance.
No tears here for the lesbo writer.
One word Nazi has inspired many more word Nazis.
Her personual deservers to be tossed down a personhole.
It's a shame she was too stupid to grasp the concept in later life.
My little girl decided her little spray bottle was distinct from her brother's. His is a mister, hers is pink, and therefore, a misses.
hopefully with her passing the PC will start to fade with her.
I'm not sure...maybe it says in her o-bitch-uary ;-).
Didn't even tell us who the ushims were.
Leni
The apple hit Newton on the head because it was the macho thing to do.
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