Gender trope discussion from last night

[niyad]

35. from the early days of the third wave of the feminist movement, we learned that words are so very

important in shaping perception, and it never ceases to amaze me how unconsciously people use words without thinking what they actually mean (by the way, have you ever read mary daly's "wickedary"?)

apart from the "girl" issue (at which point I always point out that a girl is a female child--and to accept being called a girl is to accept being treated as a child) is the "ette" and "ess" issue. it is sometimes hard to make people understand that those are diminutives, and tend to make people think in terms of "lesser". it should be suffragist, not suffragette, for example.

it amuses me to watch some people go into near hysterics when one uses gender-neutral language.
and it irritates me that, after all the work that was done (remember "chairperson" rather than "chairman" even when the chair was a woman?) we see and hear the old sexist language, even on the news and in print.