BFTP: Who moved that apostrophe?
How did a day that grew from West Virginian Mothers’ Work Days from 1858 onwards (where mothers worked together to improve their community), and Mothers’ Friendship Days from 1865 (to promote harmony between former opponents in the Civil War), become what we celebrate now as Mother’s Day?
See the difference that apostrophe position makes?
Shakespeare’s Preoccupations
I thought it would be fun to share my list of things I have noticed Shakespeare does repeatedly, and ask if you have any others.
Discussion Thread: Shakespeare Uncovered
The recent import from the BBC 4, Shakespeare Uncovered, is a six-part series in which one well-known public face of the theatre each episode gives an in-depth, personal walk-through a selection from Shakespeare’s plays. Four examine a single play, the other two look at more than one, related by genre. The Beeb’s website has outlines and [...]
The words people cling to
The important point here is that we shouldn’t accept superficially casual dismissals of ‘vocabulary wars,’ ‘fetishization,’ or ‘language policing.’ We should look closely at the words people cling to with the most tenacity, even as they try to sound blas? about it..
Quicklink: Language, as a tool, is never neutral
Language is a weapon used to make ‘others’ of people in poverty.
How Dare You Call Me A *ist
I see it all the time, both online and off – Person X writes/says something, Person Y says “gee, what you just said/did was kinda *ist” and Person X comes back with “how dare you call me a *ist” (or Person Z butts in with “how dare you call X a *ist”) .
But behaviour is never a fully accurate reflection of character. Bad habits we engage in unthinkingly don’t necessarily make us generally bad people or even generally thoughtless people, but this tends to be the reaction to having those bad habits challenged as marginalising behaviours – that the challenger is calling us a bad person.
The point is that this one particular act that is being criticised has problematic cultural assumptions embedded within it, and those problematic cultural assumptions are what need to be challenged.
Two headlines
Eva Cox in The Conversation: Tony Abbott: a confused, conservative sexist, but not a misogynist.
Milanda Rout in The Australian (paywalled): Feminist insists Abbott no misogynist.
Quelle surprise.
Quicklink: Stella Young on communication guidelines and disability
Let me make this quite clear. I do not identify as a person with a disability. I’m a disabled person. And I’ll be a monkey’s disabled uncle if I’m going to apologise for that.
Fallacy Watch: No True Klansman
I may have contributed to a new term for a rhetorical ploy we see more and more. Here’s how it happened – I’m rather proud of this coinage, but wonder whether we may be reinventing the fallacious wheel. Is there an already apt term in rhetorical jargon?
Lazy vicious marginalisation from Vagenda at New Statesman
My feminism will be intersectional or it will be bullshit.
~ Flavia Dzodan, on Tiger Beatdown 2011/10/10
Are you noting a distinct lack of attribution there from Vagenda, for an ‘oft-quoted phrase’ which is easily googled as to its source?
As if that wasn’t bad enough, here’s what happened next:
Dic abuse – prescriptivists vs descriptivists rematch – ‘misogyny’ definition edition
When you get to my age seeing the pearl-clutchers swoon angrily over dictionaries having the temerity to change something gets old, especially when it’s yet another round of people just showing that they don’t understand what lexicographers actually do.
Today in nodding furiously: what do you mean when you say you’re entitled to your opinion?
If “Everyone’s entitled to their opinion” just means no-one has the right to stop people thinking and saying whatever they want, then the statement is true, but fairly trivial. But…
Recent Comments
tigtog
tigtog, Megpie71, tigtog, Mindy
QoT, David, AMM, angharad, angie_b, Chris [...]
tigtog, Mindy, angharad, tigtog, David, tigtog [...]
Mindy, Mindy, David, tigtog, fmark
Lad Litter, Megpie71, David
angharad, David, Mindy, David, tigtog, Mindy [...]
Megpie71, Megpie71, Sharon M, Chris, Helen, Chris [...]
Xanthë, tigtog, Ali, tigtog, Lauredhel, eilish [...]
tigtog, Aqua, of the Questioners, tigtog, David, Mindy, tigtog [...]
Feminist Avatar, Orlando, Feminist Avatar, The Kittehs' Unpaid Help, Mindy, tigtog [...]
cady, cady, angharad, Mindy, The Kittehs' Unpaid Help, Mindy [...]