Polish people with
One little word…
Perhaps Polish doesn’t have a word for “woman.” Perhaps they have to use clumsy phrases like “people with vaginas.” Perhaps pigs have wings.
Tip Jar
One little word…
Perhaps Polish doesn’t have a word for “woman.” Perhaps they have to use clumsy phrases like “people with vaginas.” Perhaps pigs have wings.
Just another example of people being reduced to their body parts; they accuse us of that because we believe (with science) that the body parts are different for males and females. But they can only refer to people by their body parts as long as they maintain their ideology.
I agree very much that vaginas should not be used to hurt Polish people, or any kind of people.
So I take it, Papito, you are opposed to vagina dentata?
Iknklast, I find it as disturbing as ambiguous grammar.
At least they capitalized the P.
And a good job too, Papito. Attempting to polish people with vaginas is certainly an abuse of rights.
Weird, I thought TRAs were against viewing people as a set of genitals, calling the practice reductive. Well then, it seems they are actually in favour of it. In which case, if they are on board with calling women ‘people with vaginas’, they will surely be in favour of calling trans women ‘people with penises’. Right? They wouldn’t want to be hypocrites, right? Hello? …Is this thing on?
I wonder what the testicle museum has to say about it. Vagina museum, really? So do these types of museums have things in glass jars, or how does it work exactly? Anyone been there?
I’m curious about the gift shop.
It’s a little shopfront place in Camden Town in London, now closed because of the pandemic. It’s a very small thing. I think it’s the kind of educational museum that doesn’t feature objects in cases but other kinds of media.
Hello again. Delurking just for a moment for a brief off-topic comment.
Polish word for “woman” is “kobieta” (plural: “kobiety”). And as befits the subject matter, the word is surrounded in mystery.
Here is the bombshell: it is known that in the 16th century “kobieta” had a derogatory flavor.* The evidence can be found in some old literary texts, notably in the 16th century satirical poem “The female parliament”, where one of the female protagonists complains that “they [men] call us ‘kobiety’ for derision”. However, already in the 18th century the word functioned as it does now, namely, as a neutral (non-derogatory) expression for women.
And here is the mystery part: none of the old authors bothered to explain in what way exactly “kobieta” was derogatory. Perhaps it was so obvious that they felt nobody needed an explanation? Perhaps. Be that as it may, the effect is that at present it’s a mystery. All we have is speculation.
As an example, here is one of the ‘educated guesses’: in old Polish “kob” meant “a pigpen” – so maybe this was the source of the derogatory flavor? (“Kob” is meaningless in contemporary Polish, so at present there are no such associations.) I emphasize that it’s just an example; there is a dozen or so of competing ‘educated attempts’ at an explanation.
So … dear women, you are called “kobiety” in contemporary Polish. However, if we traveled back in time and dared to apply this term to your 16th century counterparts, they would be offended.
And the thing is that we have no idea why.
*Older non-derogatory words for “women” were “niewiasta” and “białogłowa”, normally not used nowadays but still understandable to everyone. “Białogłowa” literally means “the white-headed one”; with “niewiasta” it is a bit more complicated. The first association of the user of Polish would be perhaps “the unknowledgeable one” (misogyny!), but our etymologists have a different explanation: it’s more like “the unknown one”, with the implication being that the bride entering her husband’s household is an “unknown factor” in the family.
Ariel, could “the unknown one” also refer to the fact that the bride entering her husband’s household was expected to be “unknown” in the sense of being a virgin? Don’t know anything about Polish, but it seems an interesting association, considering the history in most countries of demanding purity from women (while not expecting it from men).
Re #11
Like “know” in the bible, right?
A relative named Adam said he used to get asked, jokingly, “How’s Eve?”. He developed a response: “Yeah, Eve, I know Eve; not in the biblical sense, of course.”