{"id":6789,"date":"2019-08-19T18:39:07","date_gmt":"2019-08-19T18:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=6789"},"modified":"2019-08-19T18:39:08","modified_gmt":"2019-08-19T18:39:08","slug":"they-say-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=6789","title":{"rendered":"They say what?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Strong woman. Todd Couper\/murrayhenwood\/flickr<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I am constantly being bombarded with emails from various campaigning organisations.  Because everything is so carefully targeted, they usually highlight issues which I agree with, so I do my best to support the various petitions that come my way. The latest one I have received concerns the definition of \u2018woman\u2019 used by the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). I don\u2019t subscribe to the OED so I could not check, but apparently under the definition of \u2018woman\u2019 it gives the following examples:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Ms September will embody the professional, intelligent yet sexy career woman\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018If that does not work, they can become women of the streets\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Male fisherfolk who take their catch home for the little woman to gut\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘I told you to be home when I get home, little woman\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The point is made that these particular examples portray women as sex objects, subordinate, and\/or an irritation to men, which is not helpful in this day and age. So a petition is underway to the OED for them to replace the current examples with something a little less offensive to women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now there is no question that such blatantly sexist examples are used by all dictionaries. I did some online searches and found plenty of examples that had no sexist connotations at all. \u00a0I feel fine with the phrase: \u2018to be one’s own woman\u2019, i.e. to be free from restrictions, control, or dictatorial influence; be independent. I guess I would campaign for all dictionaries to balance negative examples with an equal number of positive examples and to make outdated context clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we know, language and culture are intimately connected; our concepts\nare framed by the words we use. While careless talk may not always cost lives,\nit can often offend, so it\u2019s always worth reflecting, if only briefly, on the\nimpact of what we are saying. And even more so if we are writing it down or\nsending it out into cyberspace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this is damesnet, and hope springs eternal.  There are countless examples of independent women and girls who bear no resemblance to those unfortunate examples quoted above from the OED.  And one of my all-time favourites which inspired me as a young girl is Enid Bagnold\u2019s National Velvet<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I loved horses \u2013 my best friend and I spent our childhoods galloping\naround the school playground on imaginary steeds, jumping and racing. Then I\ncame across the book. Published in 1935, it tells the story of 14-year-old\nVelvet Brown, a butcher\u2019s daughter, who prays each night, \u2018Oh, God, give\nme horses, give me horses! Let me be the best rider in England!\u2019 Her wishes are\ngranted in the form of a piebald horse that is raffled off in a village\nlottery. \u2018The Pie\u2019 turns out to be rather good at jumping fences, and against\nall odds Velvet goes on to ride him and win the Grand National.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I reread the book many times; Velvet\u2019s determination comes in part from her mother, who swam the Channel as a young woman and was feted by the press at the time, yet when the reporters are clamouring to speak to Velvet after her success it is her mother who closes the door on them. This is how she explains her actions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018On’y leave that child to me. She’s\ngot more to come. You think the Grand National’s the end of all things, but a\nchild that can do that can do more when she’s grown. On’y keep her level, keep\nher going quiet.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think if Mrs Brown were around today\nshe could sort out a few of the misconceptions associated with women.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While careless talk may not always cost lives, it can often offend<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":6795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,68,55,59],"tags":[76,106,97,125,82],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6789"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6789"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6834,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6789\/revisions\/6834"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}