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From: panix!mara@cmcl2.NYU.EDU (Mara Chibnik)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: Terminology (was Re: On Womanhood......)
Message-ID: <1991May31.113651.14091@panix.uucp>
Date: 31 May 91 11:36:51 GMT
References: <9105211741.AA02780@ariel.unm.edu> <15135@ccncsu.ColoState.EDU> <1991May30.152447.12160@galois.mit.edu>
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In article <1991May30.152447.12160@galois.mit.edu>
uunet!mailrus!gatech!mit-eddie!math.mit.edu!boyiny@ncar.ucar.EDU
(Bo-Yin Yang) asks:

>Is the phrase "young lady" unsuitable for describing a female between 17
>and 27? Aside from retorts like "what lady?" (from a "young lady" friend of
>mine) I have not yet gotten any complaints.

Yes, I think it is unsuitable.  To me, "young lady" connotes a
*child*-- i.e. once puberty hits it's not an accurate term.  It also
has to do with standards of appropriate social behavior, or at least
that's the way it has always been used in my family.  Also, in my
mind's ear I hear admonitions and negative remarks:  "Sit still,
young lady."  "Stop that noise, young lady."  Never, "Well done,
young lady."  I wonder why.

Any girl can be called a "young lady" once she's reached school age
or thereabouts-- that is, once she spends enough time in public,
social settings to be trained in proper behavior.  She stops being a
young lady about the time she begins to be a young woman.

Naturally, I find some of the standards of propriety entirely
inappropriate, or at least inappropriate as used to control girls
but not boys.

>In English novels they use to call these females "Wenches".....

A "wench" always sounds sexual to me.  I guess it's my week for
reference books:  
  wench [ME wenche, short for wenchel child, fr. OE wencel; akin to
  OHG winchan to stagger -- more at wink] (13c)
  1  a : a young woman : girl
     b : a female servant
  2    : a lewd woman : prostitute

          ME = Middle English
          OE = Old English
          OHG = Old High German

(Merriam-Webster-- Webster's Ninth New Collegiate)




>B.Y.


-- 
cmcl2!panix!mara          Mara Chibnik        mara@dorsai.com
                     
          Life is too important to be taken seriously.