According To Douglas Hofstadter's A Person Paper On Purity In Language
“In any case, Niss Moses (once again) raises a ruckus on this score, asking why we don’t have a corresponding word for young whiteys who play blackeys’ games and generally manifest a desire to be blacks. Well, Niss Moses, if this were a common phenomenon, we most assuredly would have such a word, but it happens not to be.” — William Satire (alias Douglas Hofstadter), “A Person Paper on Purity in Language” I highly enjoyed Douglas Hofstadter’s piece. Although I had never given any serious thought to the problem of sexism in English, I found myself strongly agreeing with many of his arguments. In fact, I even became a bit angry and ashamed with myself for not recognizing some of the more blatant examples of sexism in the language. For example, I had not thought about the distinction between ‘Miss’ or ‘Mrs.’ The change in title was something that a married woman did as part of tradition, but I never stopped to wonder why she made that change, or why
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Being a ‘tomboy’ is acceptable, but only for pre-pubescent girls. It is a stage that a girl is supposed to grow out of when she becomes older and assumes her prescribed role as wife and mother. However, there is no corresponding word for a boy who enjoys activities that have traditionally been associated with girls. The satire piece explains that it is not a common phenomenon for boys to manifest a desire to be girls; therefore, there is no word to describe the few who have this desire. I think the word does not exist because our society has very strict notions of masculinity, and boys who prefer girl toys, clothing, and activities go against those notions and should not be acknowledged. They are giving up their maleness, their position of authority, in order to take on a weaker, lesser role — the role of a
Being a ‘tomboy’ is acceptable, but only for pre-pubescent girls. It is a stage that a girl is supposed to grow out of when she becomes older and assumes her prescribed role as wife and mother. However, there is no corresponding word for a boy who enjoys activities that have traditionally been associated with girls. The satire piece explains that it is not a common phenomenon for boys to manifest a desire to be girls; therefore, there is no word to describe the few who have this desire. I think the word does not exist because our society has very strict notions of masculinity, and boys who prefer girl toys, clothing, and activities go against those notions and should not be acknowledged. They are giving up their maleness, their position of authority, in order to take on a weaker, lesser role — the role of a