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From: kmw@iheds.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: The power of words
Message-ID: <327@iheds.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 24-Jan-84 22:05:53 EST
Article-I.D.: iheds.327
Posted: Tue Jan 24 22:05:53 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 27-Jan-84 09:22:49 EST
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Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
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I, too, read the MS article on "feminizing" literature.  I had mixed
reactions.  If I had a daughter, in the interest of historical and
literary accuracy I would want her to know the correct quotations, male
generic pronouns and all.  But I would want her to have heard the 
feminine versions first.
 
Aside from considerations of accuracy, the original quotations reflect
the times of the authors; in fact, some of them most definitely
did NOT mean "men and women" when they said "men", to point out
one of the more extreme effects of their times.  This is important
to know.
 
But assuming that the point of being exposed to the quotations in the
first place is to consider their meaning (or lack of meaning) relative
to one's own life, I think it is far better for a girl to hear them
first refering to "women".  I know that when I was growing up, I
most definitely did not perceive statements about men or mankind in general
with the same immediacy that I perceived statements about women.
They went through a filter of:
	Did they really mean women, too?
	If they didn't, should they have?
	If they didn't and should have, why didn't they?
	If they did mean women, too, why didn't they say so?
	If I can't tell the answers to any of the above questions from
		context of the quote, does it make a difference?
 	etc.,
	etc.,
	etc....
 
I was a feminist at a very early age; at different ages the above questions
were answered with considerably different depth.  But at all ages, those
issues coming up at all detracted considerably from the impact of the original
quotations.
-- 
K. M. Wilber
iheds!kmw or mvuxs!kw