From: GeoffCobb@AOL.COM
Date: Wed Apr 09 1997 - 09:50:33 MDT
In a message dated 97-04-09 02:18:29 EDT, Kethryn writes :
Damien Broderick:
>Yep, that's killed me, invalidated anything I said - what a girl, a pussy,
>a twat, a bitch, a cunt, old, past it, a wrinkly.
>
> IOW, try and find a male perjorative term that would fit into the above
> list, I doubt you will succeed.
>
prick, old fart, worm, pyz, dickhead, putz, shmuck, etc etc
> And thank *you* for illustrating an interesting linguistic
> phenomenon, the amelioration of female terms into the perjorative, as
> stated by Jane Mills: ...'the term for the female is likely to acquire
> negative...connotations and, once it is attached to the female, is
> unlikely to be transferred to a male unless to express contempt. Some
> linguists have concluded that this constitutes a definitive semantic
> rule.'
>
He was making observations about the style of debate, and was not pointing
out amelioration ( if he knows what it means, I had to look it up ; - ), but
you made a good point. It is cultural, Kathryn - and mysogenistic. It is a
social hierarchy thing. For a man to act like a woman means, in most
situations ( ie sports, etc) less efficacy. This is an unfortunate and
hopefully reversable translation of gender roles.
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