gendercide

[Jonathan Lighter]

You'd better watch out when the "geniucide" begins.

JL

On Sun, Oct 24, 2010 at 10:50 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 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
> >>
> >>  ------------------------------------------------------------
> >>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> >--
> >"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org