Re: Láadan and woman's speak

I'm currently reading a book called _Gender_ by Corbett.

Highly recommended.

There are gender systems out there already in the real world which are
like just about anything you can imagine.

Gender systems in which one gender includes men-and-animals, another
women; and others in which one gender includes women-and-animals, and
another men; gender systems in which women are neuter until they're your
mother's age, all kinds of crazy, wonderful stuff.

And of course gender systems which have nothing to do with sex.  Many many
of those.  (And yes, it's still correct to call them "gender" systems,
since etymologically "gender" merely means "kind.")

I suppose it probably wasn't in print yet when Elgin began Laadan, else it
might have given her a few more things to think about.

Ed



On Sat, 20 May 2000, Peter Clark wrote:

>         While browsing through some of the Láadan links, I happened to
> come across Elgin's reasons for constructing Láadan. The spark of the idea
> was Cheris Kramarae's hypothesis that existing human languages are
> inadequate to express the perceptions of women. (Has anyone read
> Kramarae's book, "Women and Men Speaking"? I would be interested if
> someone could do a book report on it, or at least state a brief outline
> for the hypothesis, with supporting evidence.)