My type of feminism is psycho-social, not political. That is to say, I believe that the eradication of sexism lies not in an institution so grand as the protest of government, but rather within the manipulation of basic, day-to-day interactions between individuals.
One such manipulation I would like to address is the use of the word “girl.”
Young girls, like young boys, are often immediately recognized in social interactions. Older women, much like older men, are mutually identifiable and accurately addressed.
Yet what of those individuals in between, the teenagers or young adults that lie interim to the more established sects if society?
Males retain a conveniently ageless reference. The word “guy” may refer to any male between the ages of 13 and 30. It is neither demeaning nor promotional; it indifferently and precisely communicates that the subject of conversation is an individual of masculine tendency.
The equivalent expression does not exist with regard to females. In its stead lies a threshold, curiously correlated with nubility and marriage status. The female is considered a girl until faced with this threshold, whereupon she is considered a woman.
There is no gradient; the age scale for women is a discrete distribution with two components. And should doubt introduce its ugly face, the default reference for females, I have noticed, is “girl.”
The conscious intentions of individuals in society are pure. Yet the word “girl” used in such a context subconsciously contributes to sexism. It is a discreditory reference. It means that when a female’s age comes into question, she is by default categorized with children, and her contributions to the social interaction may be written off as such.
There is no gradient; the age scale for women is a discrete distribution with two components. And should doubt introduce its ugly face, the default reference for females, I have noticed, is “girl.”
I seek to change this. As a neologist, I would like to create a word equivalent to “guy,” yet perhaps this is too idealistic. Instead of uprooting the system, I ask that the default expression change from “girl” to “woman.”
If you are unsure of a female’s age or social status, consciously refer to her as a woman until proven otherwise.
