One Giant Leap Backward For Mankind
No, this isn't about the moon. It's about the man. Specifically, it's about all the words that now begin with the prefix "Man." Here's a partial list:
"Manscaping"
"Man-purse"
"Mandals"
"Mangina" a/k/a "Manwhore"
"Man-date"
"Manswers"
"Man cave"
New words beginning with the prefix "man" are seemingly cropping up every week. I'm sure that the journalists, screenwriters, and bloggers who invent them think they're so hip and clever. But are all these extra words necessary? Don't we have enough words in the English language already? Men have been wearing sandals since "Spartacus." Hell, since "Ben Hur." Wasn't the word "sandals" descriptive enough? And if there's no gender-specific term for female body grooming, why do we need one for men?
Next time you're standing by the fireplace womantle, drinking a Womanhattan, and thinking about whether President Obama received a womandate from the voters, you can ponder this one.
Labels: man, urban slang
posted by media concepts @ 1:44 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Will I ever MANage to look at another MAN word without wondering why?
I found it a bit bizarre when at the beginning of our water yoga class of 6 females, the female teacher recited the poem Let There Be Peace on Earth with its line "I will walk with my brother, brothers all are we..." Sometimes English is so difficult when it comes to gender.
That reminds me, there's a whole subcategory of "Bro"-prefix words, the most popular being "Bromance," i.e., any movie directed by Judd Apatow and starring Seth Rogen. I have to admit I love those movies, but I'm not crazy about the term that describes them.
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