Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site watmath.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!watmath!idallen From: idallen@watmath.UUCP Newsgroups: net.singles Subject: Re: girl vs. woman -- causality; changing attitude via language Message-ID: <9246@watmath.UUCP> Date: Mon, 1-Oct-84 23:05:28 EDT Article-I.D.: watmath.9246 Posted: Mon Oct 1 23:05:28 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 3-Oct-84 07:00:06 EDT References: <366@ism780.UUCP>, <844@opus.UUCP> Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario Lines: 13 > From rcd@opus.UUCP (Dick Dunn) Thu Sep 27 15:36:43 1984 > It's a serious mistake to try to change people's attitudes by changing > language. That's getting the causality backwards... But you can *alert* some people to the existence of differing mental attitudes by using words that support those new and different attitudes. A person who habitually thinks of and refers to women as "girls" doesn't think twice about his/her attitude, until he/she runs up against someone who objects to the word. I agree that it would be better to broaden the attitude directly instead of attacking it through the language, but I don't think the lingual attack is a mistake. It raises consciousness. -- -IAN! (Ian! D. Allen) University of Waterloo