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16 lines
3.0 KiB
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<h1>CHAPTER 16</h1>
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<h2>Hey, You Gynes!</h2>
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<p>"You guys" is an expression that most of us heard a lot and many of us often used as we were growing up - first in addressing girls as well as boys, and then as we matured, in addressing women as well as men. But upon becoming feminists, as we made a serious effort to clean the sexism out of our language, "you guys" became so thoroughly unacceptable that when it occasionally slipped out of our mouths, we suffered the sort of
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guilt we had previously reserved for venial sin.</p>
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<p>So in this state of precarious grace, we searched for alternatives to "you guys" without noticeable success: you kids, you women, you girls<a href="#fn1">[1]</a> - nothing had a comparably informal, catchy ring.</p>
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<p>Until lately. It happened early in the evening of my speech at the University of California in San Diego in January 1989. The women of the Women's Center who had arranged the event took me out to eat. During dinner one of them, trying to get the attention of the group, said loudly, "Hey, you <i>gynes</i>, listen a minute!" "That's it!" I crowed, "Perfect!"</p>
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<p>It turned out that they too had been having trouble getting "you guys" out of their repertoire, had, in fact, talked about it frequently among themselves. Then finally one of them, in a flash of brilliance, dazzled the group with "you gynes." Her stroke of genius has proved a mighty relief to me. Now I can say what almost comes naturally and still be politically correct.</p>
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<p>Other words to designate us still present a problem, however. For instance, like many other feminists, I no longer find the words "woman" and "women" acceptable. But neither do I think variations such as "wimmin" or "womyn" or "womon" are significant improvements. Their attempted disguise of the words "man" and "men" is not complete enough even for written language and is, of course, nonexistent for speech.</p>
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<p>For me, the only possible alternative is one that erases all indication of maleness altogether, such as the words "wom" (that I pronounce as in "wom"an) and "wim" in Gerd Brantenberg's delightful book, <i>Egalia's Daughters</i>.<a href="#fn2">[2]</a></p>
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<p>Having said this, my continued use of "woman" and "women" in this book is admission that I am compromising my beliefs. Perhaps I rationalize when I say that it seems to me that I must first find the courage when speaking to use "wom" and "wim" exclusively before they will appear as anything but alien to me when I write. My hope is that by the time I write my next book, these or some similar wom-respecting terms will be so familiar to me that they will fairly leap from my pen.</p> <p>That will be an interesting experiment, using only "wom" and "wim" in my speeches as well as in my daily conversation. But that's what feminism demands - life as experiment.</p>
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<hr>
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<p><a id="fn1">[1]</a> I am completely unpersuaded by the rationalizations in the Movement for calling women "girls."</p>
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<p><a id="fn2">[2]</a> Gerd Brantenberg, <i>Egalia's Daughters</i>. Seal Press: Seattle, WA, 1985.</p>
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