[Ads-l] "slave" vs. "enslaved person" revisited?

Dave Wilton dave at WILTON.NET
Sun May 22 16:50:47 UTC 2016


There's similar thing going on with the word "trafficking." Some anti-prostitution activists insist that all sex workers are "trafficked."


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Joel Berson
Sent: Sunday, May 22, 2016 10:27 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: [ADS-L] "slave" vs. "enslaved person" revisited?

But those are false grounds, aren't they?  Some persons prostitute themselves ... or are we supposed to infer that there is always some outside force -- societal, psychological, genetic, etc.-- that compels them?  That seems overbroad, since it could be asserted of all human behavior.


Joel

      From: Michael Newman <Michael.Newman at QC.CUNY.EDU>
 To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
 Sent: Sunday, May 22, 2016 9:41 AM
 Subject: Re: [ADS-L] "slave" vs. "enslaved person" revisited?
   
The use of “prostituted people” references intertextually “enslaved people” on the grounds that anti prostitution activists' ideology assumes no one prostitutes themselves. They are cast as victims, just as enslaved people are. 



Michael Newman
Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics and Communication Disorders Queens College/CUNY

mnewman at qc.cuny.edu

> On May 22, 2016, at 9:31 AM, Dave Wilton <dave at WILTON.NET> wrote:
> 
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header 
> -----------------------
> Sender:      American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:      Dave Wilton <dave at WILTON.NET>
> Subject:      Re: "slave" vs. "enslaved person" revisited?
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
> 
> "Sex worker" is a broader term. All prostitutes are sex workers, but 
> not = all sex workers are prostitutes. Dominatrixes, strippers, 
> internet = cam-girls, porn actors are all sex workers, but they don't 
> engage in = prostitution. (Of course some of them do, but the usual 
> job descriptions = don't include the exchange of sex for money.)
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On 
> Behalf = Of Jonathan Lighter
> Sent: Sunday, May 22, 2016 8:18 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: [ADS-L] "slave" vs. "enslaved person" revisited?
> 
> I thought we were supposed to say "sex worker."
> 
> JL
> 
> On Sat, May 21, 2016 at 10:46 PM, Laurence Horn 
> <laurence.horn at yale.edu> =
> wrote:
>> Ah, but you're not *a prostitute* because your sex work doesn't 
>> define =
> you!
>> 
>>> On May 21, 2016, at 9:58 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> =
> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Since you prostitute yourself, the noun seems strange.
>>> On May 21, 2016 7:21 PM, "Laurence Horn" <laurence.horn at yale.edu> =
> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Last week's NYT Magazine had a cover story by Emily Bazelon=20 
>>>> revisiting the criminal status of prostitution.  This weekend's=20 
>>>> Magazine prints a letter to the editor from Gloria Steinem that=20 
>>>> contains two references to "prostituted people" and none to =
> "prostitute(s)".
>>>> 
>>>> =
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=3Dhttp-3A__www.nytimes.com_
>>>> =
> 2016_05_22_magazine_the-2D5-2D816-2Dissue.html-3F-5Fr-3D0&d=3DAwIBaQ&c
>>>> =
> =3D-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=3DwFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFF
> aL
>>>> =
> Q&m=3DWtEd4Au7h3kPBYFA5-COCrZQAI_koY3NCpQxAoCMt4c&s=3D0OVj2hK-TjjFCe_7
> uL
>>>> SXk3n9QKF5ZnVUm46tvt2Zmtw&e=3D
>>>> 
>>>> Noun aversion again? (A quick browse of Google suggests that 
>>>> others=20 employ both terms, although I didn't try to see if 
>>>> they're used=20 interchangeably in such cases.)
>>>> 
>>>> LH
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> The American Dialect Society -=20
>>>> =
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=3Dhttp-3A__www.americandial
>>>> =
> ect.org&d=3DAwIBaQ&c=3D-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=3DwFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz
> 0Zp=
> W
>>>> =
> 1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=3DWtEd4Au7h3kPBYFA5-COCrZQAI_koY3NCpQxAoCMt4c&s=
> 3D
>>>> U3OezYVTV8yviY_QTa3hG6q0gW_Ck1wxGfRRqBCul4o&e=3D
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society -=20
>>> =
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=3Dhttp-3A__www.americandial
> e
>>> =
> ct.org&d=3DAwIBaQ&c=3D-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=3DwFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0
> ZpW=
> 1T
>>> =
> sSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=3DWtEd4Au7h3kPBYFA5-COCrZQAI_koY3NCpQxAoCMt4c&s=3D
> U3O=
> 
>>> ezYVTV8yviY_QTa3hG6q0gW_Ck1wxGfRRqBCul4o&e=3D
>> 
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> 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
> 
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org


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