I need examples - actual and potential - of Feminism's effect on language.

Examples of actual: "chairperson" instead of "chairman" - "Person of the Year" instead "Man of the Year (Time)."

Examples of potential: John Personsville; Personischewitz; Personitoba; personuel labor; snowperson; Person Alive!; The Personson Family; person's best friend; personning tables; Person Overboard!; personsard roof.

Hope you can add some.

Thanks.

-- (retard@but.happy), April 17, 2000

Answers

Ha! When PC first came along, my coworkers and I were all the time inventing new, silly ways to PC things. (yes, even my female coworkers).

Some of our boners: we decided that it is NOT pc to say person, as "son" is a male. So it became "perchild; plural, perchildren)

Menlo Park, Calif=Peoplo Park Chairperchild

Have you seen the highway signs warning of "flaggers" ahead?

The government now calls fishermen "fishers" !

-- jumpoff joe (jumpoff@echoweb.neet), April 17, 2000.

Mankind=humankind, mailman=postalworker, foreman=foreperson

-- brock gannon (brockgannon@gnc.net), April 17, 2000.

remember, you asked.

manhole ---> personhole ---> utility access point ---> UAP

-- (kb8um8@yahoo.com), April 17, 2000.

First of all, I object to some PCsized names Retard has listed. Manitoba is a Native-American name which has nothing to do with "man". Same with "Manichewitz". If this over-reaching remains allowd, I reserve the right to call Retard a personiac and will simply return to my personicure.

Now carry on.

-- Female (well@balance.d), April 17, 2000.

Some examples taken or adapted from The Official Politically Correct Dictionary and Handbook by Henry Beard and Christopher Cerf:

"That's not an error - that's a differently fielded grounder!" exclaimed the batchild to the ballchild as the shortstop bobbled the ball.

"It's raining nonhuman companion animals," said Wendy and Melissa's father. "Why don't you prewomen have an herbal tea party for your nonsexist dolls, and then we'll bake some gingerbread persons!"

"You are hereby ordered to appear in court to ovarify in the aforefemtioned case," read the language of the subvulva that the process server handed to Clarissa.

Somewhat off this thread's subject: Chronologically Gifted TB2000 Forum Regular

-- David L (bumpkin@dnet.net), April 17, 2000.

Instead of actors and actresses, tis now politically correct to say actors...period.

-- cin (cinloo@aol.com), April 17, 2000.

Retard:

Chairperson is not commonly used. For a while it was chairone but that has been abandoned for chair making me a piece of furniture twice over.

Best wishes,,,

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), April 17, 2000.

Our host Philip Greenspun has included this at photo.net: Heather Has Two Mommies...

...and the three of them go to the (Zoo) Rainforest Education Center together

a children's book sponsored by the Massachusetts Institute of Appropriate Inclusivity (formerly "Political Correctness" until that term was co-opted by the white power elite as a tool for attacking multiculturalism).

Crystal Spirit Wolfrunner, one of Heather's mommies, took Heather on a photo safari to the (zoo) rainforest education center one day. There were a lot of people crowding around the animals because it was Memorial Day weekend. Crystal, a woperson of noncolor, doesn't like to wait on line because she is a little bit (bitchy) patience-challenged.

"How come you are so mean, mommy?" Heather asked.

"Don't say 'mean', Heather; I prefer 'aggression-enhanced.'" Crystal corrected. "It is probably because I used to be a man's girlfriend, er... unpaid sex worker. Actually, the best term to use is probably acquaintance rape survivor."

"How come that man next to us has such a big lens," Heather asked. "Is he sexually inadequate?"

"Remember not to be judgmental, Heather," Crystal replied. "Just because a white oppressor has a lens that costs and weighs more than a used car, that doesn't mean he is performance-challenged..."

That's just the start. It gets even better, so click on over there...

-- DeeEmBee (macbeth1@pacbell.net), April 18, 2000.

The use of "womyn" or "woperson" for women is another example. The origin of the word woman is fascinating, too.

http://www.efn.org/~lark_w/women.htm

So, what is a woman, really? The word woman originates from the Middle English wumman, wimmon or wifmon. Which just goes to show that even way back then we womb-ones had a penchant for multiple designations! These in turn are said to derive from the Anglo Saxon wifmann, later wimman, coming from wif (a female) + mann (a human being, a man). So, a woman is just a female man. In other words.

Which leads me to ask, "Well, just what exactly is a man, then?"

Interesting question. It appears a man is a mind. From the Anglo Saxon mann, we jump backwards via Germanic mann and manna (no relation to the biblical manna--I checked) to a postulated Indo-European base *men- (meaning "to think"). It is from this base that the Latin mens (mind, mental), mentio (mention) and commentus (comment) are said to derive.

-- (then@nd.now), April 18, 2000.

Perstruation, Perstrual cycle.

I hear these used routinely. Please add them to your paper.

Probably shouldn't post this one,

Frank

-- Someone (ChimingIn@twocents.cam), April 18, 2000.