why is it spelled like that...?
2007-07-09 12:24:45 · 13 answers · asked by Anonymous in Social Science ➔ Gender Studies
really? that's so stupid!
2007-07-09 12:31:00 · update #1
ok, edit. i don't agree with all the women who say all that 'men suck' crap. is equality so hard to understand?
2007-07-09 12:56:36 · update #2
To differentiate it from woMEN or woMAN. Some think that "woman" is too gender biased. Some feminists don't like the idea of the word for their sex being a sort of derivative of the word "man". It's not the only alternate spelling, there are also words like womban, wimmin and womon.
2007-07-09 12:33:12 · answer #1 · answered by ginandchthonic 2 · 4⤊ 2⤋
I think the rationale kind of follows this:
In many instances, power is determined in a society by equating certain kinds of people as "normal" and certain kinds of people as "extra" or "non-normal." It's more subtle than it sounds. It's like if you saw a silhouetted drawing of a mouse, you'd think "Mickey Mouse," but if you add a bow you think "Minnie Mouse." Or how on bathroom doors, the default drawing of a human body is "Man" and when you add a dress and pearls it becomes "Woman."
In the same way, wo-man can be viewed as the default "man" plus a specifier. So people came up with words like womyn, etc. But it isn't like the people who are into these theories are going to get on your case if you use "woman" instead. To call someone a "woman" certainly is not an insult. And I don't see why anyone would think it is stupid... language is powerful. It's really just interesting to think about, more than anything else. Sometimes really subtle shifts in the way we think can really change our whole perspectives.
Hope this helped!
ETA: Changing the spelling in their writing doesn't indicate that these people think "men suck." It's like they are commenting on the way our society is set up. Patriarchy isn't a conspiracy, it's a hierarchy, and you're supposed to fight the system, not the people who live in it.
Men can be proponents of equality between genders just as much as women. On the other hand, I would hazard to guess that there are just as many women as men who will vigorously defend this system of inequality (ie. Phyllis Schlafly), but the vast majority of people don't take a stance either way, they just live their lives. So anyone who blames the way things are completely on men is misinformed. So I'm not sure if you mean feminists when you talk about "people who think men suck," but in case you did, I hope this clarifies that a little bit.
2007-07-09 19:39:51 · answer #2 · answered by Nisha 3 · 5⤊ 1⤋
Yup. A group of people have decided they don't like the letters "m" , "e" and "n" in sequence within the name for the human female gender. Some have chosen to think it is disrespectful and demeaning, and have decided to campaign ruthlessly for the word to be changed. They just can't stand it. I suppose these are the women who are so blue-in-the-face mad at men that they grind their teeth every time they see the word "woman". Seeing as the word woman was never meant to be sexist, and seemingly was only recently interpreted as such, it could only make things worse to change the word. Even if I was a woman of that very small minority, and hated men with all my guts, I don't see what the issue is with this word; the word "woman" is longer than the word "man" anyway!
2007-07-09 22:02:29 · answer #3 · answered by Recipiscence 2 · 3⤊ 2⤋
Ignore it.
It's part of the program of some benighted semi-feminists, and it will pass into oblivion sooner or later.
But in the meantime, it serves to mark those women--and perhaps even some few men--who are not your friend. If someone you know uses 'womyn' where Joe or Jill Sixpack would say 'women', you are dealing with . . . an ideologue? a manipulating itchbay? a knee-jerk ivory tower feminist intellectual? could be any of those, and the examples here are not exhaustive.
Best advice I can give: 'Womyn' signals 'I'm your enemy.'
2007-07-10 02:42:01 · answer #4 · answered by skumpfsklub 6 · 2⤊ 3⤋
because of the suffix "men" being in the word "women" its an attempt to distinguish wome/yn as different than men, not to be defined by men.
I think it was 2nd wave feminism that started it, but i could be wrong
here's urban dictionary's explination of it...
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=womyn
2007-07-09 19:28:26 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 7⤊ 1⤋
It's the spelling used by some feminists who think that "woman" is derogatory since it is based on the word "man". A lot of women, including feminists, think it's st*pid and really doesn't help anything.
2007-07-09 19:29:46 · answer #6 · answered by Offkey 7 · 3⤊ 5⤋
If changing a word could change the world...
well, suffice it to say that womun are naive and misguided.
2007-07-10 15:28:12 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 3⤋
I suspect that you are blending two issues. One issue is related to gender disrespect. The other issue is grammar. As I can see by reviewing your past questions and answers, you practice "relaxed" capitalization and punctuation standards. So, rather than your question asking "Is it stupid for people to misspell the word women?", you are probably asking "Is it stupid to show disrespect?". Yes, it is stupid to show disrespect.
2007-07-09 19:49:14 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 6⤋
I haven't seen that one but usually those types of misspellings are some punk kid who thinks it's cool
2007-07-09 19:27:43 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 4⤋
Just like how they spell girl gurl, it something they like to do on the internet.
2007-07-09 19:27:19 · answer #10 · answered by Andrew 3 · 5⤊ 4⤋