Abusing English

It appears that the Voices of Sophia has a new website, which I thought an appropriate subject for my first post on the new site. Their old one had not been updated since 2005 or 6, and now appears entirely defunct, at which we all rejoiced. But of course that was too good to last; you can now find them at voicesofsophia.wordpress.com/ where their particular brand of nonsense is alive and well.

There is a great deal already on the site that I want to discuss at some point.  First, however, I would like to say a few things about the article about Mary Jane Patterson (don't bother looking her up on Wikipedia; we're not talking about the woman from the 1800s). In many ways, it is quite typical of such articles - recapping significant moments in her life, honoring her work, ignoring her faults, making her sound far more perfect than any human ever was. Whether or not I agree with those things to which she dedicated her life is not the point here.

The point is "SHEROS."

SHEROS? Seriously? Come on.  It's not like "hero" has ANYTHING to do with "he."  Just because a word happens to share some letters in the same order as another word, it does not mean the words share the same root.  In fact, "hero" is from the Greek word heros, which - delicious irony! - Wikipedia suggests may be from the goddess Hera! Oh, wouldn't it be perfect if that were so, and the feminists are destroying a reference to a goddess through their hypersensitivity to masculine-tinged language?  It just makes me giggle with glee!  At any rate, it is quite new to English compared to "he," having arrived on the scene only in the 1300s.

"He," on the other hand, is from the Old English (O.E. in the Online Etymology Dictionary) word which, while spelled "he" was actually pronounced "hay."  It has been in the language for as long as we can tell - at least from what I find in the dictionary mentioned.

The most beautiful irony of this is, of course, that it is completely and utterly pointless.  For what letter comes after "h" and "e" in this poor word? Why, can it be the humble little "r"?  It is?  And what do those three letters, in that particular order, spell? Why, "HER"!  Which is, of course, the feminine counterpart to the pronoun which caused such offense.  Shall we then get rid of "her" and "she" because of their offensive letters?  Where does it stop?  Do we dispense with "where" and "when" for the same reasons?

Okay, that is rather ridiculous.  But ask yourself - is it any less ridiculous than SHEROES?

Brittany Dowdy

June 21, 2009