$tinkle
11-06-2006, 03:30 PM
univ d'waterloo (http://imprint.uwaterloo.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=454&Itemid=55&issuedate=2006-11-03):
Never before had the Federation of Students seen so much discussion over a single vowel.
The Federation of Students held its annual general meeting in the Great Hall on Monday, October 30. Like previous general meetings, most changes to Feds policy were a matter of fixing grammar or subtly modifying wording; those passed without discussion or contention. However, there’s always that one hot button issue which gets debated, picked apart, and ultimately garners a charged vote. Whereas that issue last year was the creation of a referendum committee (which ultimately failed 9-13-4), this year the hot issue was centred around a letter: changing the name of the Womyn’s Centre to the "Women’s Centre."
The word "women" comes from the old English “wifman” (or “wyfman”) which meant “weaver human,” “man” itself was a gender neutral term at that time; adult males were referred to as “werman” (or wæpman), meaning “person with a weapon.” However, sometime between old and middle English the “wer” was dropped from “werman,” making the male gender default (according to various experts and the Oxford English Dictionary.) The feminist movement of the 1970s took offense to the male gender being the presumed default and femininity being relegated to a prefix. Arts councillor Caitlin Cull told Imprint, “The issue really relates to a very important and interesting aspect of feminist thought and perspective, and that is the power and politics of language. Because we accept language as neutral and unbiased, we fail to acknowledge the history and the sexism that are laden within the very words that we use.”
Never before had the Federation of Students seen so much discussion over a single vowel.
The Federation of Students held its annual general meeting in the Great Hall on Monday, October 30. Like previous general meetings, most changes to Feds policy were a matter of fixing grammar or subtly modifying wording; those passed without discussion or contention. However, there’s always that one hot button issue which gets debated, picked apart, and ultimately garners a charged vote. Whereas that issue last year was the creation of a referendum committee (which ultimately failed 9-13-4), this year the hot issue was centred around a letter: changing the name of the Womyn’s Centre to the "Women’s Centre."
The word "women" comes from the old English “wifman” (or “wyfman”) which meant “weaver human,” “man” itself was a gender neutral term at that time; adult males were referred to as “werman” (or wæpman), meaning “person with a weapon.” However, sometime between old and middle English the “wer” was dropped from “werman,” making the male gender default (according to various experts and the Oxford English Dictionary.) The feminist movement of the 1970s took offense to the male gender being the presumed default and femininity being relegated to a prefix. Arts councillor Caitlin Cull told Imprint, “The issue really relates to a very important and interesting aspect of feminist thought and perspective, and that is the power and politics of language. Because we accept language as neutral and unbiased, we fail to acknowledge the history and the sexism that are laden within the very words that we use.”