After a report released last week revealed that contrary to popular belief, men and women talk roughly the same amount as each other, the BBC has hit back with a "tongue-in-cheek feature" on the words women use that men don't. Here are some highlights:
Feminism: If even veteran feminists can't agree on what this means then it's probably best avoided by men.
I hear a lot of men use that word, sometimes because they are feminists and sometimes because they are making rude remarks about feminists. Same word for either use.
Afghanistan: A place where the debate is rather starker
Men don't talk about Afghanistan? What about the mainly men who decided to invade it? One would hope they have discussed it a few times.
Why: As in "why do you never call?"
Also as in "why do you keep calling?" and "why can't you leave me alone?", not to mention "why is the dog upstairs?" and "why don't we go to the pub later?"
And it goes on: book club, accessorize, body image, empowering, size zero, home birth, pilates, pomegranate (? I know, Mr Cru drinks pomegranate juice all the time), agony aunt, breastfeeding, flexible working, beefeater(?), superwoman, babies.
Some of it is just weird, some is downright offensive. And I didn't laugh once. Not so much tongue-in-cheek as foot-in-mouth...
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3 comments:
Maybe I'm just too much of a new man, but none of those words are verbotten in my vocabulary. In fact, I love the word "accessorize". If I didn't have three kids, I guess I would be doubting my sexuality just about now.
I really can understand why you get frustrated by this kind of mindless research. Reasonable human beings don't discriminate. We are all entitled to our hang-ups (mine being primarily medical), but to block them from your vocab is denial and idiocy of the first order. If you're so insecure that you cannot use certain words, there's more wrong with you than you think. But let's not call it "mental illness" because it might offend.
Worse - it's still on the BBC front page and it is currently the "most emailed" BBC story on the web. Which means morons the length of the country are mailing it to their mates and girlfriends with their own unpleasant addendums. No doubt the list of words these Neanderthals don't use could be extended to include "respect", "equality" and "foreplay".
Personally I avoid talking about "Feminism" to avoid looking like an idiot - there are people far better qualified to speak. In a similar way I would feel uneasy championing Afro-Caribbean, Gay and Venusian rights, although I'm certainly against any discrimination against these groups.
I dare you to argue in favour of the word "empowering" though.
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