Marilyn Yalom, Feminism and Language

 

Dr. Marilyn Yalom (1932-2019), feminist and historian, and life-long companion to Dr. Irvin Yalom (When Nietzsche Wept), wrote A history of the Breast, A History of the Wife, The Social Sex. A History of Female Friendship, How the French Invented Love... and many others. She was a true-blue femnist of the intelligent, scholarly and educated kind.  I stand to be corrected, but none of her books on women deal with language.

I am a feminist because I believe in justice, equality, and have three daughters and three granddaughters. And I believe in change, in dislocating the status quo, in kicking ass, but seriously, not half-hartedly. And I believe that trying to change language artificially is not going to change society. George Orwell and his newspeak taugut us that. To change a language artificially changes nothing. "Socios y socias, niños y niñas, unidos y unidas" is a travesty of equality. "If a lawyer wants to win a case, he/she must..." is a mockery. 

I urge those ineterested in feminism to read Dr. Marilyn Yalom.