Comments

Oh, that's just freaking great.

That'll take the cause of equal rights for women a LONG way.

-- CarolynJohnston - 31 Oct 2005

It's all over the place.

On t-shirts, on computer games, everywhere.

-- CatherineJohnson - 31 Oct 2005

Along with Girls Rule.

-- CatherineJohnson - 31 Oct 2005

-- CatherineJohnson - 31 Oct 2005

-- CatherineJohnson - 31 Oct 2005

When my daughter was in Kindergarten, she came home reciting the following rhyme:

"Girls go to college To get more knowledge; Boys go to Jupiter To get more stupider."

-- BarryGarelick - 31 Oct 2005

I loathe this stuff.

-- CatherineJohnson - 31 Oct 2005

"Girls go to college To get more knowledge; Boys go to Jupiter To get more stupider."

My son came home singing the same thing. He thought it was funny. I wish I could remember the rest.

How about

Girls go to Mars to get candy bars. Boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider.

Boys are smelly.

-- SteveH - 01 Nov 2005

The boy on the blue background is another case of a visual undermining the supposed intent.

That little guy looks completely and totally traumatized.

-- CatherineJohnson - 01 Nov 2005

Let me put it this way.

This graphic does not scream out, "Support the NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN."

-- CatherineJohnson - 01 Nov 2005

The stuff displayed here is from a book called "Boys are Stupid: Throw Rocks at Them" by Todd Harris Goldman, who also owns David and Goliath clothing which puts out the T-shirts and other "boys are stupid" paraphernalia. Anything to make a buck in this country, I guess.

If you go to Amazon.com, take a look at the reviews of the book. Most of them are down on the book. One points out that if a similar book came out making girls the target, it would not be tolerated.

-- BarryGarelick - 01 Nov 2005

good

-- CatherineJohnson - 01 Nov 2005

On that note:

Kill 'freshmen,' high school decides Term is archaic, chauvinistic, oppressive – and out

There are no more "freshmen" at Amherst Regional High School in Massachusetts.

The administration at the school has decided to kill "freshmen" – the term, that is.

Freshmen are now simply ninth-graders for reasons of political correctness.

What could be objectionable about the term "freshmen"?

The last syllable of the word has a male connotation.

And, although Amherst is the first high school in the nation to ban the words "freshman" and "freshmen" from all official uses, the trend began in some local colleges – including Amherst, Smith and Mount Holyoke.

Not everyone is celebrating the purge of chauvinism – either real or imagined – from the campus.

"I think it's kind of weird," said freshman, er, ninth-grader Sam F. Hart of Shutesbury. He told the local newspaper, the Republican: "There are a lot of other words that have man in it. I don't see it as sexist. Freshmen is what we've always been called."

Marta M. Guevara, assistant principal for student support, said earlier this month the change to ninth-grader was initiated nearly two years ago during a week that highlighted issues surrounding violence against women. The week ended with the student production of the controversial play "The Vagina Monologues."

This summer, Guevara talked over the idea with her staff and it was agreed the time for change had come.

"We did it in the hopes of having a conversation about what language means," Guevara said. "It is an issue for some people. The issue has to do with the connotation – it's a male word."

Guevara went even further, suggesting there is also a sexual connotation to the word – as in men being fresh toward women.

As always, when officials make rulings, they don't always catch on right away.

Rosalie M. Elkinton, a senior, said it doesn't make a difference to her what first-year students are called: "People still call them freshmen. We went through the school as freshmen and that's what we think of them as."

What makes Elkinton is the lack of uniformity in the policy. She suggests is "ninth-grader" is the preferred term for what formerly was called a "freshmen," then the school should likewise call sophomores 10th-graders, juniors 11th-graders and seniors 12th-graders.

As for Guevara, she is pleased that debate has been stimulated.

"We just want to have a conversation and have a dialogue and see what makes sense to our school," she said. "We want conversation, we want for kids to bring forward their thinking. It's a great conversation to make them aware of the possible misogynistic, oppressive or non-inclusive language."

-- BarryGarelick - 02 Nov 2005

Doesn't the word "woman" have the same bad male connotation as freshman?

Couldn't they do like what the militant feminist did with "woman" and change the word to "freshmyn"?

-- KDeRosa - 02 Nov 2005

Marta M. Guevara, assistant principal for student support, said earlier this month the change to ninth-grader was initiated nearly two years ago during a week that highlighted issues surrounding violence against women. The week ended with the student production of the controversial play "The Vagina Monologues."

This is hysterical! Unbelievable! And the woman's name is even Guevara!

-- CarolynJohnston - 02 Nov 2005

"We did it in the hopes of having a conversation about what language means...."

"We just want to have a conversation and have a dialogue and see what makes sense to our school...."

"We want to have a conversation, but you must not use some words in that conversation." Oooh, and they're having both a conversation and a dialogue?

Perhaps they should start their conversation (and dialogue, I suppose) with classes about the grammatical use of the English language and the rules of effective rhetorical speech. A hint: weasel-worded obfuscation is unconvincing.

-- DougSundseth - 02 Nov 2005

"We just want to have a conversation and have a dialogue and see what makes sense to our school...."

...and ram our ideas down your throat. For your own good, that is.

-- SusanS - 02 Nov 2005

I really enjoy how "have a conversation," "have a dialogue" and, especially, "have questions" have replaced "debate" as the standard for intellectual discourse.

In a debate you have to provide support and be prepared to defend your position. When you have a conversation/dialogue/question anything goes. You can have a conversation about your feelings and can expound at length about any wacky position you've picked up from those websites with lots of CAPS, Blinking Text, run-on sentences, and mental patient formatting .

-- KDeRosa - 02 Nov 2005

Just make sure your dialogues/conversations are based on hard facts, not ideologies. Unless you're an educationist defending the latest idea du jour.

-- BarryGarelick - 02 Nov 2005