Lat, McGuire Insensitive to Women

Recently, my roommates and I became engaged in a fierce lunch-time debate over the usefulness of attempts to de-genderize words of description: "womyn" vs. "women" and the like.

We began our discussion with the premise that the movement has, at times, crossed over the line of usefulness, frustrating the course of constructive discussions with its obsessive concern over linguistic subtleties.

But still some of us wondered: how much could we ignore the implications embedded within such word-choices as, for instance, the use of "man" to signify the entire human race, or the pervasiveness of words derogatory to women, "bitch" or "slut," that have no male equivalent?

The day after our debate (in which we came to no conclusive agreement), a dissent to a Crimson staff editorial, written by David B. Lat '96 and G. Brent McGuire '96 opened with the lines, "We find it strange that in their girlish enthusiasm for Ted Kennedy, the staff neglects to mention..." ("Vote for None of the Above," Opinion, Nov. 2).

The authors then went on to describe several flighty statements they could imagine these staff members making as a result of their "girlish enthusiasm:" e.g. citing Kennedy's "outstanding swimming ability" as a reason to support him as senator.

This blatant association of "girlish[ness]" with an ability to formulate well-reasoned, logical opinions resonated loudly with the previous day's debate. Here was an unambiguously negative use of a term denoting femaleness, in which the negative implications sprang from the very gender being invoked. One could not ignore the gendered root of this word, without losing the idea it was expressing: that certain people acted in a way characteristic of young females, by arguing a point in an irresponsible, giddy manner.

The offhand way in which the authors affirm such a negative stereotype demonstrates not only a careless choice of words, but a frightening degree of belief in these debasing generalizations.

I, as a female and a member of a youthful age-bracket, cannot help but consider the word "girlish," in the context in which it was used, related to myself. If a person unquestioningly accepts a connection between being a girl and being unable to speak rationally, I cannot help but feel that this person attacks me and my girl-friends.

In the future, I ask that if Lat and McGuire, or any other expounder of opinion, should wish to characterize others negatively, they do so without resorting to language that inadvertiantly denigrates an entire group of people. Through such reckless descriptions, outdated prejudices receive a voice perhaps more powerful than any impassioned diatribe, evoking the most fertile attitude in which prejudice can take root: that of thoughtless or casual acceptance of simplistic, injurious categorizations. Julia K. Tom '96