Social media panders to folk with the attention span of the proverbial goldfish.....and don't let's get started on the declining standards in English education in the UK. My kids don't study a whole text in class - much too difficult!
Talking of "misogyny" Wuthering Heights was one of my favourite novels as a teenager (goth girl, obvs) - I often wonder what the #MeToo brigade make of the violent, brooding and domineering hero.
The word Misogyny may well be used a lot in the wrong context but it’s certainly not used enough in the correct way to describe most of the stuff currently directed at and suffered by women. Abortion criminalised, sterilisation denied, single sex spaces removed, the rights of women to compete fairly in sports under debate or denied. Vulnerable women imprisoned with men. Female victims of rape forced to refer to their rapists as ‘she’ in court. This week John Hopkins University, in their LGBTQ resources glossary defined Lesbians as “non-men attracted to other non-men”. NON FUCKING MEN.
Misogyny is getting worse and has become insidious, in my lifetime it has never been as hateful as it seems now.
Maybe because when words are over used or more often used incorrectly they stop having the impact they were intended to have. When everything became transphobic I stopped caring about being called a transphobe, it’s constant use as a battering ram to shut people (mostly women) up rendered it meaningless to me.
I enjoyed your essay. Lots of good points, but my favorite line is: " If Charles tempered his sentiments, he’d compromise the entire bloody theme of the novel—Oh, never mind."
Increasingly, in court, I’m getting answers to hostile questions with “that’s not what I meant”. My reply, “but it’s precisely what you said”, is always met with an odd mix of indignation and bafflement.
This one needs about three hearts. The rearguard is important ... as long as one acknowledges that the front line of “what is/isn’t anti-woman” is this: https://www.propublica.org/article/tennessee-abortion-ban-doctors-ectopic-pregnancy -- Health wrecked, life endangered, over a wanted pregnancy with complications. It’s hard to keep proportion and perspective; I certainly don’t do it as well as I’d like.
“As Orwell had it, ‘Fascism’ is a hollow word. In the essay mentioned above, he said: “The word Fascism has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies ‘something not desirable.’” In modern parlance, the same applies to...”
Social media panders to folk with the attention span of the proverbial goldfish.....and don't let's get started on the declining standards in English education in the UK. My kids don't study a whole text in class - much too difficult!
Talking of "misogyny" Wuthering Heights was one of my favourite novels as a teenager (goth girl, obvs) - I often wonder what the #MeToo brigade make of the violent, brooding and domineering hero.
Reminds me of the old joke...
English: Is standards declining?
🤭 Dad jokes are the best
"Grunt"
Meanings change with time: these days a "fascist" is an opponent of government censorship, like Elon Musk.
Well Mr. Gage, no one can accuse you of incorrect language use.
And may I add one grunt.
The word Misogyny may well be used a lot in the wrong context but it’s certainly not used enough in the correct way to describe most of the stuff currently directed at and suffered by women. Abortion criminalised, sterilisation denied, single sex spaces removed, the rights of women to compete fairly in sports under debate or denied. Vulnerable women imprisoned with men. Female victims of rape forced to refer to their rapists as ‘she’ in court. This week John Hopkins University, in their LGBTQ resources glossary defined Lesbians as “non-men attracted to other non-men”. NON FUCKING MEN.
Misogyny is getting worse and has become insidious, in my lifetime it has never been as hateful as it seems now.
Maybe because when words are over used or more often used incorrectly they stop having the impact they were intended to have. When everything became transphobic I stopped caring about being called a transphobe, it’s constant use as a battering ram to shut people (mostly women) up rendered it meaningless to me.
Good points, well made.
Sometimes I think there's a contest to create new buzzwords (which I realize is also a recent buzzword) and make us sick of them as fast as possible.
I enjoyed your essay. Lots of good points, but my favorite line is: " If Charles tempered his sentiments, he’d compromise the entire bloody theme of the novel—Oh, never mind."
Increasingly, in court, I’m getting answers to hostile questions with “that’s not what I meant”. My reply, “but it’s precisely what you said”, is always met with an odd mix of indignation and bafflement.
Excellent.
Yes, The Very Online called Al Pacino a paedophile for dating his girlfriend, who is almost 30.
This one needs about three hearts. The rearguard is important ... as long as one acknowledges that the front line of “what is/isn’t anti-woman” is this: https://www.propublica.org/article/tennessee-abortion-ban-doctors-ectopic-pregnancy -- Health wrecked, life endangered, over a wanted pregnancy with complications. It’s hard to keep proportion and perspective; I certainly don’t do it as well as I’d like.
“As Orwell had it, ‘Fascism’ is a hollow word. In the essay mentioned above, he said: “The word Fascism has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies ‘something not desirable.’” In modern parlance, the same applies to...”
100% good sir. Nailed it.
I wrote about this as well: https://michaelmohr.substack.com/p/george-orwells-politics-and-the-english
Michael Mohr
‘Sincere American Writing’
https://michaelmohr.substack.com/