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It just adds extra letters and is harder to pronounce. What’s wrong with including women in the word “mankind”?
So don’t.
Who says Humankind? Mankind means the species of humans. Political Correctness gone mad! Soon they’ll be changing the word ‘woman’ to ‘woperson’…
But wait, can the PC police explain why human/humanity is better than man? it also has “man” in it. So does Woman. Once man is erased from the English language, what do you do with these words/phrases?
manila envelope
manifest destiny (although the PC police probably wouldn’t let that one get by in any case)
manifold
mania/manic
manipulate
mandible
mandarin
manage/management
mannequin
etc.WTP
Nobody has a problem with the three letters MAN. This is a strawman. (oops, starwperson). The discussion is over the word MAN when it excludes females. As in Fireman, Policeman etc.
If you look up the etymology of the words you list, none of them (to my knowledge) have anything to do with male/female. much like adaMANt, and MANnage dont.
On the other hand the word “mankind” is based on the word Man as in male. Now whether it bothers you that the “default” or main gender is the male gender is a separate issue. It seems not to, and perhaps it is silly to be bothered that Males are the dominant gender.
But is is sillier to misconstrue the discussion as being against the 3 letters MAN
Winnie, LOL.
My old company had a few properties in the Isle of Man. We used to call it Isle of Person.ubiquitin, I meant it tongue in cheek to highlight the ridiculousness of the issue.- Geordie and RebYidd got my intentions.
What is really funny is that the new trend to use “she” for a generic person has been extended to animals (“your dog barks because she is lonely”). However, they seem to be coming around to our view as they refer to Hashem as “It”.
So next time I get my nails done should I ask for a woicure or mynicure?
Avi
I dont understand your post. We dont refer to Hashem as “It” we refer to him as “He”. Open any Parsha in Chumash.animals have for a while been reffered to as He/she by their owners who may have a “personal relationship” with it.
Interestingly though, ships have been refferd to as “sHe” though this is falling into disfavor.
Rebyidd
You are right. I dont.WTP.
IT doesnt highlight the ridiculousness because the two arent related. RebYidd’s example though isNo more manicotti? 🙁
Isnt the word “shechina” lashon nekeiva?
ubiqutin-my exaggeration was meant as a joke. in my opinion, the “man” in “woman” or “mankind” is no more offensive than the “man” in “manipulate” etc. Just as it is silly to think that the word “manage” is insulting to women, I feel that it is silly to think that mankind is insulting.
And RebYidd’s example was from my list.AviK- animals have gender too, so it is not strange to say he or she. Or maybe I am just used to hearing Hebrew, which has no word for “it”. (ever hear an Israeli speaking English and referring to inanimate object as he/him or she/her?)
What would the PC folks do if English was like other languages and actually assigned gender to all objects- like Hebrew, Spanish, French? Would they analyze why some words were feminine and some masculine, and get insulted?cantthinkoffancyusername,
You would have to say ‘personicure’.Ubiquitin, on the other hand we say “Modim anachnu lach”. “lach” is the feminine “you”.
Winnie,
1. The point is that they are even “correcting past gender bias” in regards to animals.
2. Not only Israelis. Some Americans refer to cars as “she” as they are unpredictable (this is also why hurricanes were only named after women). BTW, there is a Hebrew version of “Who’s On First” on-line (hu is he, hi is she, mi is who, die is enough and I will add dag is fish) and there is also a video of former Major Leaguer Chin-lung Hu on First Base with the announcer saying “Hu’s on First”.RebYidd you are absolutely right-also we should stop using the word black.
No more black-list, black and blue, in the black, blackmail, blackjack, black market, black eye, blackout and Black&Decker will have to change their name. For the color, we will use jet or noir or ebony.RebYidd23, I wholeheartedly apologise and withdraw that sexist comment. Obviously, the correct term is perchildicure.
ps, I was brought up under the apartheid government in South Africa, but I’m trying my best to get over it.
The idea that the masculine form of a word is used when referrring to the general population and that women are unique and hence have their own terminology that applies to them and them alone comes from Loshon Hakodesh and therefore from Hashem.
Since it is from Hashem, there is no reason for anyone to be upset about it. But if it were to bother anyone, logically, it should be the men who are bothered by it and not the women.
The only reason why any women (as well as male feminists) are bothered by it is because they assume that women are always being prejudiced against (I know that’s not a word, but it should be), and therefore any time there is any distinction showed between the genders, they assume it’s putting down women.
Which is both ridiculous and wrong!!! However, I understand why someone who has not had the privilege of growing up with Torah hashkafa would think so.
It is our very differences that make us unique and special.
WTP
“my opinion, the “man” in “woman” or “mankind” is no more offensive than the “man”Yes I got that. And your joke was hilarious.
Again though (and for the last time) the two examples are completely different. so while I agree that there is no reason to be offended by the “Man” in Mankind nor the man in manicure. They are not the same, and thus not comparable. similarly the “MAN” in MeANing (look for it it too contains the 3 letters MAN) is also differentAvi
See for example
http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=9597&st=&pgnum=76passuk 19 where “lach” is directed to Adam
Avi
“on the other hand we say “Modim anachnu lach”. “lach” is the feminine “you”.”
Not quite. (in fact the very next word is “sheatah”) the reason why it is “lach” is becasue it is a quote from Divrei Hayamim 19:13. There it is lach since by an esnachta LEcha becomes lach (occasionally by a zakef katan too).
Can we go full bore PC and change Hebrew too? From now on instead of saying “בן אדם” or even “בן אנוש” in any conjugation, you have to specify “בת חוה” if it refers to women or “בן אדם/בת חוה” if it could be either. So when you want to say in Hebrew “Look at all those people there!” you would say instead of “תסתכל על כל בני אדם שמה” rather “תסתכל על כל בני אדם בנות חוה שמה”. That would simplify matter greatly I feel.
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