Words about Women: Double Standards
What is interesting about words relating to women- or rather, sad, shocking, or telling is to notice how over the course of history most words about women begin as positive but degrade over time to become negative.
"Housewife" means "mistress of a household", but the Old English word "huswif" gradually changed to "hussy" which is now a term of contemptuous reproach. Along these lines, because of its association with women, even "house" is no longer safe from the invasion of infidelity. In certain sentences, house means "a house of prostitution," and "bordello" at first mean "a little house" but now is used to designate a "brothel".
"Dame", originally from the Latin "domina", meant "mistress" and was once used to indicate a position of high station. Only one example is necessary to prove this, "Notre Dame." However, today you will rarely hear the word "dame" used in a positive context. Same with "madam"- if you say someone is a madam you are more likely to believe she is is the "madam of a house of ill-repute" as you are to think she is the "women of the respectable home".
A "courtesan", at first, was a very decent feminine member of court circles. A "wench" was a word for child and "tart" was a word of endearment, but all of these have now degenerated into sexual terms that would clearly be offensive if used in public.
"Woman" itself is not even safe. If you were to say, "she is his woman" that will evoke a very different reaction than saying "she is his wife". Wilford Funk warns that when using any foreign language "you will find it safer to totally avoid using a word that means girl or woman unless you are sure of all its connotations." So which would you rather be thought of, a seductress vamp or not noticed at all? Really, it is that bad?! Wow.
Words about Women: Sex and Power
There are two likely reasons for the corruption of words relating to women and they are not mutually exclusive or simple: 1.) It is thought this is either directly or remotely connected with sex and of course almost all words on the subject of sex lose caste and become taboo in polite society. 2. Until recently, in most societies men have held the position of power and men have seen to it that despite actions either instigated or participated in by themselves, women are seen as the "temptress"; ensuring that the shame of Eve would be fixed upon all of her children in our very vocabulary.
Vocabulary or Language, may very well be either be a creator or creation of power, or if not, at the very least a tool of power- you will find an in depth philosophy on subject backed by numerous examples in the works of Michael Foucault.
Foucault's works analyze the link between power and knowledge. He outlines a form of covert power that works through people rather than only on them. Foucault claims belief systems gain momentum (and hence power) as more people come to accept the particular views associated with that belief system as common knowledge. Such belief systems are defined by their figures of authority, such as nobility, medical doctors, or priests in a church. Within such a belief system—ideas crystallize as to what is right and what is wrong, what is normal and what is deviant. Within a particular belief system certain views, thoughts or actions become unthinkable. These ideas, being considered undeniable "truths", come to define a particular way of seeing the world, and the particular way of life associated with such "truths" becomes normalized. This subtle form of power lacks rigidity and other discourses can contest it. Indeed, power itself lacks any concrete form, occurring as a locus of struggle In essence, he sought to show how meaning and knowledge is constructed, not absolute, and examined “how we know what we know.” His two major works from the 1960s, Order of Things
, address the historico-ontological status of language and, especially in The Archaeology of Knowledge
, provide a methodology for approaching the history of thought. His major works in the 1970s, Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison
, and The History of Sexuality
, explore the genealogy of power relations.Words about Women: Tossing and Turning
There is no better example of how struggle changes the meaning of words is how much the meaning of relating to women took place in England when Charles II came to the throne in 1660. This was the heyday of the double entendre and wholesale immorality by the upper-class and reflected in the theater of that time, while the middle class held stubbornly to the Puritan tenets of Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth that had gone before. There were double standards relating to the functionally powerful and the powerless, not the least of which is the double standard applied between men and women. Without positions of actual government authority, sexuality may very well have been a tactic of power that could be perceived as an opportunity or a threat to the powers of some. Regardless, the tossing and turning of the meaning of words related to women is evidence of Foucault's viewpoint, which is that words have no absolute meaning, only one that is negotiated through struggle. Not withholding the bedroom.
While there are many movies that convey what I am trying to say with less words and more clarity, the best I have seen in recent memory is the move, The Duchess
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