"In this particular post I deliberately used the word 'woman' rather than 'girl', because the point I wanted to make was not restricted to children;..."
You've made a point I hadn't considered. I'm so used to reading news stories of girls being assaulted and then called "women", and I was seeing the same thing in your entry.
It's part of that myth that sex makes a girl a woman, even rape, and yet women are still being called "girl". It's a dichotomy that infuriates me. I can't agree with calling this victim a "young woman", either. That may be a cultural thing on my part; a young woman to me means having voting rights, and being able to purchase alcohol. In short, it means having the emotional and mental ability to live independently. It may well be that puberty is the signal for this girl's culture to be considered a young woman. Considering her culture's attitude toward females, it may very well be that she was old enough to be married, but, being female, would be treated as a child all her life.
"Old enough to bleed, old enough to butcher" was a hateful term my ex-husband used. For me, calling a girl a woman is negating to adult women; It says in essence that all women are girls, really.
Thanks for the civil discourse, Art. Now I understand that you were being inclusive, and not perpetrating that particular bit of female negation.
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Date: 2008-11-07 03:25 pm (UTC)You've made a point I hadn't considered. I'm so used to reading news stories of girls being assaulted and then called "women", and I was seeing the same thing in your entry.
It's part of that myth that sex makes a girl a woman, even rape, and yet women are still being called "girl". It's a dichotomy that infuriates me. I can't agree with calling this victim a "young woman", either. That may be a cultural thing on my part; a young woman to me means having voting rights, and being able to purchase alcohol. In short, it means having the emotional and mental ability to live independently. It may well be that puberty is the signal for this girl's culture to be considered a young woman. Considering her culture's attitude toward females, it may very well be that she was old enough to be married, but, being female, would be treated as a child all her life.
"Old enough to bleed, old enough to butcher" was a hateful term my ex-husband used. For me, calling a girl a woman is negating to adult women; It says in essence that all women are girls, really.
Thanks for the civil discourse, Art. Now I understand that you were being inclusive, and not perpetrating that particular bit of female negation.