An enlightening linguistic journey through a thousand years of feminist language—and what we can learn from the vivid vocabulary that English once had for women’s bodies, experiences, and sexuality
So many of the words that we use to chronicle women’s lives feel awkward or alien. Medical terms are scrupulously accurate but antiseptic. Slang and obscenities have shock value, yet they perpetuate taboos. Where are the plain, honest words for women’s daily lives?
Mother Tongue is a historical investigation of feminist language and thought, from the dawn of Old English to the present day. Dr. Jenni Nuttall guides readers through the evolution of words that we have used to describe female bodies, menstruation, women’s sexuality, the consequences of male violence, childbirth, women’s paid and unpaid work, and gender. Along the way, she challenges our modern language’s ability to insightfully articulate women’s shared experiences by examining the long-forgotten words once used in English for female sexual and reproductive organs. Nuttall also tells the story of words like womb and breast, whose meanings have changed over time, as well as how anatomical words such as hysteria and hysterical came to have such loaded legacies.
Inspired by today’s heated debates about words like womxn and menstruators—and by more personal conversations with her teenage daughter—Nuttall describes the profound transformations of the English language. In the process, she unearths some surprisingly progressive thinking that challenges our assumptions about the past—and, in some cases, puts our twenty-first-century society to shame. Mother Tongue is a rich, provocative book for anyone who loves language—and for feminists who want to look to the past in order to move forward.
1 有用 Mömö 2024-05-25 09:34:47 浙江
偏向单一性别的社会产生的语言也是一种结构性暴力,中文这种象形文字的偏向较之英文更加显而易见(有谁来做一本关于中文变迁看女性权利的综述……)。而希望在于语言是随着人和社会的变迁流动变化的。
0 有用 Le Flaneur 2024-09-08 11:35:51 上海
看之前以为是搜集历史上和女性有关的词汇,但实际上内容不是特别切题,很多地方只是讲女性被压迫的历史,和语言学的关联不是特别紧密;如果想读关于语言中的厌女问题的书,那还是大大推荐《Wordslut》,比这本好得多
0 有用 禅茶一味 2024-12-18 01:01:10 阿联酋
December 2024, Dubai
0 有用 itsk 2024-11-08 12:19:52 山西
学到知识了!喜欢作者的小笑话