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Path: utzoo!linus!security!genrad!decvax!microsoft!uw-beaver!tektronix!tekcad!franka
From: franka@tekcad.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Girl vs. Woman vs. Gal vs. ... - (nf)
Message-ID: <161@tekcad.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 9-Dec-83 12:42:46 EST
Article-I.D.: tekcad.161
Posted: Fri Dec  9 12:42:46 1983
Date-Received: Sun, 11-Dec-83 04:49:00 EST
Sender: franka@tekcad.UUCP
Organization: Tektronix, Beaverton OR
Lines: 32

#R:azure:-241400:tekcad:2000001:000:1539
tekcad!franka    Dec  9 09:42:00 1983

>/***** tekcad:net.women / azure!cindym /  1:29 am  Dec  9, 1983*/
>My question is why people insist on using a word that angers the ones
>being described with it?
>
>Cindy McMeekin
>tektronix!tekmdp!cindym
>/* ---------- */

	Cindy, the reason is that the word "girl" was not always politically
unacceptable. I grew up in a time and place where the word was not derogatory
and old habits die hard. Believe it or not, the term "girl", as little as fif-
teen years ago, was used as a generic descriptive noun for any member of the
female sex. I do my best not to use the term, but the mind is sometimes weak
and the tongue lazy. If I slip into politically anachronistic speech, please
do not scold me harshly, but simply tell me that you are offended and I will
do my best to change. Languages do not change in a day (as we today see), and
the effort spent on reforming the language can often be spent more productively
in getting to the heart of the problem. I would rather have people in power
who give equal opportunity to women and who still occasionally call women girls
than people who use politically correct language and make sure that women "stay
in their place". The old saying, "Actions speak louder than words," is some-
times lost in the heat of a political firestorm, but if you look closely, it
is the actions and not the words which have the most effect.

               				From the truly menacing,
   /- -\       				but usually underestimated,
    <->        				Frank Adrian
               				(tektronix!tekcad!franka)