Thursday, November 16, 2006

Y Bother

Just as mediaeval scholasticism degenerated from the heights of Aquinas' Summa Theologica to arid debates about how many angels could dance on the head of a pin, so has post-modern academe degenerated into theoretical abstractions that no one can understand.

Thus the pitched battles over issues that appear to have no possible relevance to advancing human knowledge or improving the human condition.

As reflected in this debate:

The University of Waterloo has changed the name of its campus women's centre after 45 minutes of intense debate on a single, symbolically laden vowel.

After more than a decade as a bastion of feminist retreat, the campus Womyn's Centre has become its Women's Centre.

The change, seen by some as long overdue, may reflect a departure from the politicized language of early feminism.

"It's a necessary and inevitable moving away from the feminism of the '70s and '80s," says Philinda Masters, a women's studies researcher at the University of Toronto.

....

The term "womyn" evolved out of a radical feminism that emphasized patriarchy as the cause of women's oppression and resolved to separate from men.

As a consequence of the same movement, "history" was reintroduced as "herstory."

The University of Waterloo's director of Women's Studies, Rhiannon Bury, says the spelling is often remembered because it is simple and accessible even to those who pay little attention to feminist ideas.

"So people take that and say, 'Well that's kind of silly, why would you change that,' but I think with all language, language is never neutral, right? It's always about power and control, who gets to name," she says.


Lest we think that this is merely a silly debate between overeducated, coddled students and academics, remember that these same academic incubators hatched the social engineers who have brought us the sexual revolution, multiculturalism, radical secularism and all its attendant evils.

Even if some outre ideas don't catch on, think of the ones that have.

And pay more attention to what appears to be simple ivory tower lunacy.

It could be the law tomorrow.

Source: National Post

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

mmmm...fems realizing they do need 'men'...looks good on them..