virago vuh-RAH-go; vuh-RAY-go, noun:
1. A woman of extraordinary stature, strength, and courage.
2. A woman regarded as loud, scolding, ill-tempered, quarrelsome, or overbearing.
This was the Dictionary.com Word-of-the-Day. They come once a day (not often enough) via email.
This particular word fascinated me. In our culture the word for a strong, courageous woman is the same word for a "scold" or "overbearing."
The vile subtext to these meanings is that in our society, even now in many cases, a woman who is strong is viewed as a woman who doesn't know "her place."
Raising two daughters, I find this very disturbing. We live in a culture that is poisonous for women. Maybe it's poisonous for everyone in some way, but I'm sure women bear the brunt.
I know that I have my work cut out for me, teaching my daughters to respect themselves in a world that keeps telling them not to -- unless of course they are rich, white Christian, quiet, demure, fashionable, conformist and unnaturally thin -- and all of the other bullshit requirements that our society forces down women's throats.
I have 40-pound 6-year-old who routinely asks if I think she is fat. That is how early the poison gets into our children. I don't tell her "no, Julie, you're not fat." To do that would be to validate the question, which I refuse to do. I tell her, "Julie are beautiful, and you always will be." When she gets, older, like her sister, I can get into more detailed discussions about how we cannot allow some advertising executive or TV casting agent to control our understanding of beauty. I look forward to those talks, and I hope the way I am handling this will get the message across.
Back to the word, "virago." The two definitions crystalize a sociological and philosophical reality in a way that is quite unique for the didactic simplicity of a dictionary entry: Definition 1 identifies the virago as a strong, courageous woman, and Definition 2 explains how the world will percieve her -- a scold, perhaps a "shrew"?
The root of the word, "vir," is the Old English word for the male sex: as in "virility" or "virture" (which originally meant "manliness.") Goes to show that in our society a strong woman is viewed as encroaching on male territory.
The most important thing I will ever do is raise my daughters to be strong, courageous women who don't give a damn about society's perceptions.
On a lighter note: I have completed my story about the sex-crazed hamsters. (Please see my post of Oct. 21 if you don't know what I am talking about.) If anybody wants to read it lemme know!
1. A woman of extraordinary stature, strength, and courage.
2. A woman regarded as loud, scolding, ill-tempered, quarrelsome, or overbearing.
This was the Dictionary.com Word-of-the-Day. They come once a day (not often enough) via email.
This particular word fascinated me. In our culture the word for a strong, courageous woman is the same word for a "scold" or "overbearing."
The vile subtext to these meanings is that in our society, even now in many cases, a woman who is strong is viewed as a woman who doesn't know "her place."
Raising two daughters, I find this very disturbing. We live in a culture that is poisonous for women. Maybe it's poisonous for everyone in some way, but I'm sure women bear the brunt.
I know that I have my work cut out for me, teaching my daughters to respect themselves in a world that keeps telling them not to -- unless of course they are rich, white Christian, quiet, demure, fashionable, conformist and unnaturally thin -- and all of the other bullshit requirements that our society forces down women's throats.
I have 40-pound 6-year-old who routinely asks if I think she is fat. That is how early the poison gets into our children. I don't tell her "no, Julie, you're not fat." To do that would be to validate the question, which I refuse to do. I tell her, "Julie are beautiful, and you always will be." When she gets, older, like her sister, I can get into more detailed discussions about how we cannot allow some advertising executive or TV casting agent to control our understanding of beauty. I look forward to those talks, and I hope the way I am handling this will get the message across.
Back to the word, "virago." The two definitions crystalize a sociological and philosophical reality in a way that is quite unique for the didactic simplicity of a dictionary entry: Definition 1 identifies the virago as a strong, courageous woman, and Definition 2 explains how the world will percieve her -- a scold, perhaps a "shrew"?
The root of the word, "vir," is the Old English word for the male sex: as in "virility" or "virture" (which originally meant "manliness.") Goes to show that in our society a strong woman is viewed as encroaching on male territory.
The most important thing I will ever do is raise my daughters to be strong, courageous women who don't give a damn about society's perceptions.
On a lighter note: I have completed my story about the sex-crazed hamsters. (Please see my post of Oct. 21 if you don't know what I am talking about.) If anybody wants to read it lemme know!
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Maybe I betrayed my own social programming by interpreting definition 2 as automatically negative?
For me the word became a springboard for larger issues that weigh on my mind, my anxieties about raising two girls with no positive female role model.
I also, generally speaking, tend to be pessimistic about human beings, life, the universe and everything.
Personally, I'm a sore bloodied fist with swollen knuckles.
While I stand by my musings about our culture at large, I could be willing to give "virago" another chance.