Hi Minh and Carol,
Yes, Minh, that's exactly my point. It's by using the terms across the genders that those connotations start changing. Terms like director, minister, secretary, doctor, nurse, president, engineer, farmer, entrepreneur, author, technician and many more are used across the genders. In my own culture of origin there are male midwives who refuse to be called anything but midwife (because of the nice ring - the Dutch translation of midwife connotes wisdom) even though a perfectly acceptable gender neutral term also exists. In the past such terms as the ones cited may have had strong gender connotations, but the more we progress beyond the divisions of the past, the more those terms lose those connoted irrelevant meanings. We are now way beyond the Middle Ages, a period in the history of Europe that wasn't as bad as often depicted. As we and our communities and societies evolve throughout the ages, so do our languages. Flexibility is what allows it to happen. Jan _____ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of minh mcCloy Sent: Sunday, July 25, 2010 12:54 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [WikiEducator] Re: Nomenclature for WikiMaster Why can't master be rounded up & be just gently morphed into a word that connotes any & all genders. English does meaning shifts all the time to - it is part of its power & delight. Why abandon 'master' to a gendered ghetto? What will you do with 'masterpiece" -gurupiece, superpersonpiece? We could embrace 'master' exhibit flexibility. wikimaster has a nice ring to it :) minh On Sun, Jul 25, 2010 at 8:27 PM, Carol <[email protected]> wrote: Hi Jan Interesting that you raise the issue that a woman could take over on the death of her husband. Not of any consolation for those not wishing to be married who who might have liked to be a member of the guild in their own right not as a replacement for a dead husband. Pls don't think I am having a go just wanting to add to the debate here. There have been many feminists myself amongst them who would have willingly been awarded something other than Master for a degree, but fighting academia is almost impossible in these matters. Heck I couldn't even submit my thesis on CD back in 1999, now of course they are digitising everything :) The irony is not lost on me. I hope one day my female colleague will be able to be awarded something not entitled Master. Everyone - What other terms are there we could use? I am sure my list of suggestions is only the tip of the iceberg. Carol -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]
