Womyn v. Woman

[bmathey]

I did not want to highjack the feminism thread, but can someone explain the changed spelling of 'woman' to me. I figure the argument to change the spelling to 'womyn' must be that to use the suffix 'man' is inherently degrading / harmful to women. If this presumption is wrong please tell me.

That said I have 6 questions.

1). What the heck is the plural of 'womyn'?
2). If woman should be changed to womyn should female also be changed? If so what should it be changed to?
3). Why is there an objection to woman when 'wo' is not a definable prefix? The result then is that 'man' cannot be a definable suffix and as such loses its meaning?
4). Why the Y? (instead of some other letter, ie womin)
5). Why do people continue to use womyn. As the origions of langugae are verbal not written isn't it the pronunciation that counts and so long as the word is pronounced the same the impacts are still there?
6). Why do people continue to use womyn when it is very clearly a replacement for woman. Why not use a completly different word which people cannot mistake as containing a reference to the male gender?

Thanks for explaining this to me

brian mathey

[shea_d]

:hearhear

I actually agree here. I was exposed to the "womyn/woman" issue about a year ago when I became really involved with the debate forums. I didn't see the profound impact the change in spelling had on the feminism issue. Women are still payed less for the same amount of work. Women are still under-represented in the technology/engineering spectrum of higher education and the work force. Women are still oppressed in countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran. The switch to "womyn" has not had any effect on these problems. I didn't see the point of concentrating such an amount of emphasis on something that had little to no effect.

[AhhAlegra]

I refer you to the mid August thread (http://www.inkwater.com/net-benefits/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2541), which may answer some questions :)

[jatkins]

To summarize the arguments of the feminists I have read on this subject, and not to advocate one way or the other in this case:

1)Womyn is the plural. Wommon, wimyn, and several other spellings have been variously used as the singular. Often womyn is used both as the singular and the plural, as the intended preconceptual challenge is only tied, socially, to the more recognizable womyn and not to its various singular forms. (Daly)
2)Theoretically, yes. Though I haven't a clue as to what.
3)"Wo" is a definable prefix. Some argue that its etymology inherently suggests that women should be entirely identified with their relationship to men: they are the "womb of man." Thus, men have identities separate from women, but women do not have identities separate from men.
4)Because "y" is cool. I believe this is empirically evident. The only cooler letter is "x," and they couldn't very well put that in there could they? Also (possibly) because the Y chromosome is the female chromosome.
5)The intent appears to be to challenge preconceptions. The actual adoption of its usage is perhaps secondary to the effect some feminists believe can be derived from its usage in texts, a challenging of preconceptions I alluded to earlier. By bringing attention to this seemingly harmless inequity, some feminists hoped to demonstrate, by way of a universally comprehensible example, the utter pervasiveness of patriarchal dominance in social interaction and thought.
6)The effect of challenging preconceptions simply would not work if those confronted with the word could not immediately recognize the difference, while still understanding the meaning. Using "Molakx" instead of "Women" would probably be more confusing than anything else.

[army CPT]

are any of these spellings in the dictionary???

[PancreasMatt]

c/a all my stuff from the old thread.

[army CPT]

thanks