A lot of people are interested to know why we spell women as wom*n/womyn. There are a few reasons, listed here in no particular order:
- This is the name of the department in the UMSU constitution so in any case it is the name we must use.
- The founders and past members of the department have used this name, so we use it out of respect to their hard work and our shared past.
- It’s impossible to use an asterisk (*) in a web address, hence we use the spelling ‘womyn’ in our site address (umsuwomyns.com).
- The reason for using alternative spellings in the first place is explained below (the following info is shamelessly stolen from Wikipedia!):
“Wom*n” is one of a number of alternative spellings of the word “women” used by some feminist writers.[1] There are many alternative spellings, including “wimmin“, “womban“, “wom!n“, etc. Writers who use alternative spellings see them as an expression of female independence and a repudiation of traditions that define females by reference to a male norm.[2]
Background
Main article: WomanIn Old English sources, the word “man” was gender-neutral, with a meaning similar to the modern English usage of “one” as an indefinite pronoun. The words wer and wyf were used to specify a man or woman where necessary, respectively. Combining them into wer-man or wyf-man expressed the concept of “any man” or “any woman.” Over time, against the background of a patriarchal social and legal system, wer-man was simplified to man while wyf-man developed into woman.[3][4] Feminist writers have suggested that the less prejudicial usage of the Old English sources reflects more egalitarian notions of gender at the time.[2]
Variants
Womon/womyn
“Womyn” appeared as a regular spelling of “woman” in the Scots poetry of James Hogg. Its usage as a feminist spelling of “women” (with “womon” as the singular form) first appeared in print in 1975 referring to the first Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival,[5] an annual art festival that admits only womyn-born womyn.[6][7]
Womon/wimmin
“Wimmin” appeared in 19th century renderings of African American English, without any feminist significance. Z. Budapest promoted the use of “wimmin” (singular “womon”) in the 1970s as part of her Dianic Wicca movement, which claims that present-day patriarchy represents a fall from a matriarchal golden age.[8]
See also
Notes
- ^ D. Hatton. “Womyn and the ‘L’: A Study of the Relationship between Communication Apprehension, Gender, and Bulletin Boards” (abstract), Education Resources Information Center, 1995.
- ^ a b Neeru Tandon (2008) Feminism: A Paradigm Shift
- ^ Spender, Dale. Man-Made Language.
- ^ Miller, Casey, and Kate Swift. The Handbook of Non-Sexist Language.
- ^ “Womyn.” Oxford English Dictionary.
- ^ http://eminism.org/michigan/20060822-mwmf.txt
- ^ Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture Issue 17, Summer 2002
- ^ Eugene V. Gallagher, W. Michael Ashcraft (2006) Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America
Further reading
Look up womyn in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
- Sol Steinmetz. “Womyn: The Evidence,” American Speech, Vol. 70, No. 4 (Winter, 1995), pp. 429–437
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