gendercide

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:16 AM -0400 10/24/10, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>  > . . .because so many of the would-be perpetrators who are weak on their
>classical Latin
>misinterpret it as the killing of viruses. <
>
>In this case, language ceases to speak the perpetrating elites consistent
>with their prelinguistic desires.
>
>JL

Mebbe so.  But another factor leading to the general neglect of the
grim consequences of gendercide is the tendency of the hegemonic
elite to confuse this practice with that of _genericide_, a plague
they assume the manufacturers of Kleenex tissues, Thermos bottles,
and Band-aid brand adhesive bandages have enough resources to combat
successfully on their own.

LH

>
>On Sun, Oct 24, 2010 at 9:46 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:
>
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>  -----------------------
>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>>  Subject:      Re: gendercide
>>
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  At 9:09 AM -0400 10/24/10, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>  >On CNN just now: "Did you know that 100,000,000 women and girls in China
>>  and
>>  >India are the victims of gendercide?"
>>  >
>>  >This came at the end of a segment devoted entirely to the
>>  >allegedly widdespread practice in Afghanistan of dressing little girls as
>>  >boys, and encouraging them to "act as boys," so that a family may avoid
>>  >shame by pretending to strangers that it has at least one son.
>>  >
>>  >But that's an Afghan custom.  What about China and India?  I don't know.
>>  >Not a word was said. But Wikipedia restricts "gendercide" to actual
>>  killing.
>>  >It includes "femicide" and "viricide."
>>
>>  The latter being much less prevalent, no doubt because so many of the
>>  would-be perpetrators who are weak on their classical Latin
>>  misinterpret it as the killing of viruses.
>>
>>  LH
>>
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