Squaw Daffiness (sociolinguistics)

[annie ross]

hello

to clarify, the term 'lady' can be used to imply a set of behaviors; i.e, one who behaves in a certain prescribed manner (one who obeys) is a 'lady'.
often, a woman who has attempted to be assertive, present in the world, one who attempts to effect positive social change, et cetera, has been called 'un-lady -like'.
as if female-ness was tied to submission.
so, that is what offends certain women - to have an imposition of obedience placed upon them.

thankfully, in the past twenty years, i have seen this term 'lady' has been evolving to mean a female person.  so, the meaning of the word in common usage has been changing.  thank goodness!

p.s.
even though i am a mix-blood, i have been called a 'squaw' by non-native men and i did not like it.  and it was meant in a bad way.

annie

"Sean M. Burke" <sburke at CPAN.ORG> wrote:
At 11:14 AM 2003-09-15, Andre Cramblit wrote:
>The third argument is that 'squaw' is offensive to Indians, in the same
>way that
>'nigger' is offensive to African Americans.

My only criterion for whether a word is offensive is whether people
generally use the word to offend. Etymological rumors and notions that
people might think that people might think that people meant to offend with
it, are aimlessly exasperating.


I once knew a lady who told me she found the word "lady" offensive.
I deduced that she had too much free time, and spent it badly.

--
Sean M. Burke http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ilat/attachments/20030918/c981a450/attachment.htm>