Chaucer et al

[Wilson Gray]

I can understand that, I think. However, as chance would have it, the
only "Blondie" that I've known in real life is male:

<http://www.indiana.edu/~anthro/people/lesourd.html>

though I call him "Philly," myself.

-Wilson

On 11/8/06, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Chaucer et al
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> IIt's usually insulting to both - though for different reasons !
>
>   JL
>
> Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
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> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Wilson Gray
> Subject: Re: Chaucer et al
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> What about the fact that both men and women can be addressed as
> "blondie" or nicknamed "Blondie," despite the fact that the
> quintessential "Blondie" is a female cartoon character?
>
> -Wilson
>
> On 11/6/06, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> > Subject: Re: Chaucer et al
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Of whom the gods wish to destroy, they first screw up the language.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > Laurence Horn wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > Poster: Laurence Horn
> > Subject: Re: Chaucer et al
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > At 4:05 PM -0500 11/6/06, Wilson Gray wrote:
> > >This distinction is / was actually *taught*? I learned it solely from
> > >seeing how it was used in the print medium. And now someone is
> > >claiming / has claimed that this patterning is sexist?! Hence, only
> > >the use of the masculine form is correct?! Doesn't this strike anyone
> > >but me as sexism with its brains blown out? If the *masculine* form is
> > >made the only correct form, doesn't that simply underline the
> > >supposedly-implied claim that the feminine is subordinate to the
> > >masculine? Make the *feminine* form the standard form and I may begin
> > >to see this as something more than simply white folk with too much
> > >money and too much time on their hands, giving them the leisure to
> > >sweat this kind of triviality. How soon will it be before someone
> > >points out the sexism inherent in the distinction between "widower"
> > >and "widow"?
> >
> > Actually, 36 years ago--Robin Lakoff in _Language and Women's Place_
> > (1975) discusses the fact that in this case (unlike "chairman" etc.)
> > the term with female reference is morphologically unmarked, because,
> > she argued, we're more willing to define women in terms of their
> > relationship to their spouse (even a dead one) than to so define men,
> > and points out the difference between referring to Mrs. Jones as John
> > Jones's widow than referring to Mr. Smith as Jane Smith's widower.
> > (Actually, there are counterexamples of the sort one would expect:
> > Ted Hughes as Sylvia Plath's widower, and such, as long as the dead
> > woman is more famous than man left behind.)
> >
> > But to repeat--it's at best (or worst) vanishingly rare to encounter
> > a feminist argument against the (purported) sexism of "blonde"
> > because of the -e. It's much more common to come across feminist
> > arguments against the use of "blonde" as a nominal to refer to women
> > when "blond(e)", with or without an -e, is never (or much less
> > frequently) used as a noun to refer to men; such observations go back
> > to the late 1970s (Miller & Swift's _Words and Women_, 1977) and
> > early 1980s.
> >
> > If the former argument hadn't been mentioned by Jon, I'd have been
> > inclined to dismiss it as an urban legend.
> >
> > LH
> >
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> -----
> Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is knows how deep
> a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam, the first great benefactor of our
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--
Everybody says, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange
complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is knows how deep
a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam, the first great benefactor of our
race. He brought death into the world.

--Sam Clemens

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