The Definite Article

I've gotten to a difficult part in my sister's thesis, partially thematically and partially linguistically. It is difficult for me to find sympathy for Annie Ernaux. Not because she is having an abortion, but because on the one hand I don't know any men who are as nasty as apparently described in L'événement and on the other hand because I get the feeling that the Law felt masculine in France in '65 and may yet still feel masculine. The law doesn't feel masculine to me, here in Virginia. Also, I don't speak French and, contextual clues notwithstanding, I'm having some difficulty with the passages.

The law has never felt particularly masculine to me. Some laws do feel masculine and some feel feminine.

As a Sgt. in the Marine Corps, I could not make male Privates who misbehaved dig foxholes and fill them back in, but instead was forced to fill out paperwork that would dog them throughout their careers - and was also unlikely to cause them to change their behavior. This felt like a feminine law. The threat of career threatening paperwork was a very successful tool in preventing female Privates, PFCs and LCpls from misbehaving while the threat of a weekend spent digging foxholes was a very effective tool in preventing male Privates & PFCs from misbehaving. I would have rather had the option of both with rules in place that prevent abuse - community standards should prevail. No man would have made such a law. And in fact, no man did - it was the direct result of Congressional lobbying on the part of the Mothers of America, a group that frequently lobbies on behalf of members of the military. They have also removed any kind of rough action from boot camps, as if military training should be more akin to kindergarten than preparing soldiers for war.

In any event, laws that mandate specific sentences for crack cocaine feel masculine - if unfair. There's a law, there's no provision for altering it, this is the way it is and everyone knows it so just live with it. That's the way my father might solve a controversy - here's the answer, deal with it.

And then it seems like there's this vast body of law that isn't terribly either masculine or feminine: Don't drink and drive, don't speed, tenants are responsible for lost rent on the part of a landlord if they leave before their lease is up, etc.

Anyway, I'm going to put my sister's thesis down for a bit and fly to Edinburgh for Hogmany. For New Year's, I'll be dancing in the streets of Edinburgh with my friends Anna and Darren and Brian and Martin and David and Roddy and Francesca, God willing. If I'm lucky then Dave Duffy and Big Paul and Andy Watson will all be there, and maybe even Wendy and Claire. Should be good.

Bad part is, I have to fly over Ireland to get there. So I'll be flying over Carol instead of stopping where she is and seeing her. The good news is that I'll get to see her for a while in two weeks or so! Maybe as long as a month. This is a good thing. She's leaving for her flight around the world at the end of that time and we're breaking up, and that sucks, but there's not much I can do so I'll accept it with all of the good grace that I can.

Posted by Nate at 2:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I was reading my sister's brilliant thesis, The Differences in Treatment of Sexism in the French Language Between France and Quebec. It made me think about Schoolhouse Rock, specifically Conjunction Junction, the nature of sexism, how the egalitarian movement might benefit from a name change and why class struggles aren't really dead.

Also, I invented a low-effort, tasty snack sandwich that uses liver pudding.

Mara wrote her thesis for a Master of Arts in the Department of Languages and Literature - specifically French - at the University of Cincinnati.

Mara, please forgive me: I plan on quoting from you at length and haven't asked your permission yet. I just need to get the ideas down while they're still in my head.

My sister's thesis opens with a statement and then a definition that creates an equivalence. To wit:

'The equality of women and men is a concept which has gained popularity in the past century. Feminism, as defined by Webster's Third International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged, is "the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes" (837).'

Well, I have to take issue. Not with my sister, who is implying with this statement that feminism has gained popularity in the past century, which is a statement of fact that if challenged could be defended by a number of means. No, I have to take issue with Webster's Third International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged. It's their use of an Oxford comma (a serial comma, if you prefer) in the above quote. I am in favor of a serial comma separating the list from its last element (and before a coordinating conjunction) only when the last item is one where the lack of an Oxford comma would create confusion: "For dinner last night we ate black-eyed peas, corn pone, butter, and macaroni and cheese."

Try that construction without the comma preceding the coordinating construction and the requirement for the clarifying comma is evident. In any event, I'm suspicious of Webster's already for their use of the comma. The comma isn't called an Oxford comma for no reason and to find it in Webster's smacks of editorial sycophancy.

Grammar aside, my sister posits an inadvertent irony: feminism lays claim to a concept that contains nowhere in it the idea of femininity, at least according to the somewhat less than authoritative aforementioned Webster's.

The American Heritage, which has long been a favorite dictionary of mine, has a similar definition: "Belief in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes." Note the Oxford comma. This differs only cosmetically from the definition in Webster's.

Princeton University defines feminism thusly: "a doctrine that advocates equal rights for women." This definition strikes me as a lot closer to the mark. My sister points out in her thesis that if Francophones had meant for women to be professors, engineers, doctors or ministers, those words would have feminine as well as masculine endings or at least neuter endings. Quebec has consequently supported the feminization of titles. By the same token, as a man, I am excluded from espousing "feminism." I may say that I espouse it but the word itself precludes my gender from entering the discourse. I may as well claim to be a lesbian.

The word "feminism" is sexism in language and it's blatant. An honest definition might be: "a system of beliefs that advocates the extraction or reclamation of economic rents by women from society at large." You can't have equal rights for women. Why not? Because if the rights are equal, then they're for everyone. Rather than add this definition to the English language, let's change the term to be more inclusive and call it anti-sexism or egalitarianism. Egalitarianism would be broad enough to include issues of racism and classism.

Classism is the persistent, pervasive evil. The more meritocratic the societal system, the more persistent and pervasive the class structure. After all, if you've earned your place in the hierarchy, are you really willing to surrender it to someone else simply because someone tells you redistribution of wealth is a good idea?

Finally, the sandwich:

1. Slice an onion and carmelize the slices in a bit of butter.
2. Toast two slices of bread.
3. Warm the liver pudding and place on a slice of toast along with some carmelized onions.
4. Pour on a bit of A-1 steak sauce.

Bon apetit!

-Nathan

Posted by Nate at 12:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)