Jewess:
Commenter jgshapiro asks, apropos a recent case that used the term,
A side note, but when is the last time you heard a judge refer to someone as a "Jewess"?
Well, if you do a Westlaw search for the term, the immediately preceding case is In re B.C., 680 N.E.2d 1355 (Ill. 1997), with the following notation in the list of amici (granted, seemingly put there by West Publishing and not by the court):
Gary Feinerman, Mayer, Brown & Platt and Jenner & Block, Chicago, for the American Jewess Congress.
And, yes, it's that way in the printed reporter.
I like Edward's comment.
Is "actress" similarly anachronistic, though not disparaging? There still are Oscars for "Best Actor" and "Best Actress" aren't there, though Hollywood is generally pretty PC, except of course when there are $$$ to be made from the non-PC.
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John, no "bloggesses" among the bones-made members currently listed over to the right under "Contact." I believe that the few "bloggesses" who have blogged here have all been temps guest blogging.
Along similar lines, was there ever such a thing as a negress?
Also, why did negro become a taboo? It was a non-english word that could be used to describe the race. It was in widespread use as a respectful way of referring to what we now call "black." MLK used the word in speeches and the supreme court used it in opinions ("negro railway porters") and no one seems to have objected to this as disrespectful. So what changed?
My main gripe with the current post-negro words is that they are confusing and inaccurate. I can't even count the number of times I have heard dark skinned non-Americans described as "African American." I also don't think "black" is fair either because many races have dark skin and most of them aren't of recent African extraction.
Off topic, yeah. Sorry.
The American Jewish Congress is an organization I've heard of.
The "American Jewess Congress," however, seems to be something that only exists on this blog and in the court reporter
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The first home I bought in Short Hills NJ had a restrictive covenant disallowing Jews and Italians. (Jewesses too?) The deed had a large stamp across the face noting that the clause was illegal (unconstitutional?) based on a NJ Supreme Court ruling. The town is now 40% Jewish (?) and 20% Italian (?) so I guess the original developer must be spinning in his grave.
I don't recall ever seeing any female conspirators on this blog except for an occasional guest-blogger and EV's sister-in-law, who is now gone from the masthead.
So, EV, aren't there any libertarian-leaning female law professors out there who are opposed to a living constitution and obsessed with their right to own guns? Inquiring minds want to know.
Pretty much, yes. That is why I was surprised to see it in an opinion circa 2008.
Reminds me of someone I knew in law school using the term "Jew" as a verb, as in "he Jewed me down on the price." I was pretty shocked when I heard it, though I suppose it could be seen as a compliment if you think about it in terms of "hard-bargaining." But still.
Maybe this was an overly tired clerk with fingers faster than his/her brain, proofreading at 3:00 AM.
Glad it wasn't me.
As to Jewess, my sense is that (unlike "Jewed") it was never itself pejorative -- it's just one of those now very rare archaicisms (such as "Hebrews") that makes people wonder "Huh, why is he saying that?" It's perceived offensiveness, it seems to me, stems precisely from the inference that the speaker must have an ulterior motive in using such a nonstandard term.
I knew an Alex Levin once who used that terminology all the time. Mainly arguing with his dad.
There still are Oscars for "Best Actor" and "Best Actress"
Even that distinction isn't universal in Hollywood. I always found it odd that there's a tendency to refer to both actors and actresses as "actors", I guess out of some sense of feminism (the Guardian does this a lot), by the same sort of people who insist on the awkward "he or she" formulation for pronouns.
I also don't think "black" is fair
You're right. "Blonde" is fair.
I'm not suggesting you would pick someone solely or primarily because they were female. And Michelle must have been before I discovered the site.
Nevertheless, I have always thought it strange that there were no regular contributors to the site that are women, at least since I have been reading it which is going on 2-3 years.
And just as a casual observation, it seems unlikely that picking libertarians, or however you would define the underlying theme of the site, you would come up with 18 men and no women at the same time. That is a lot of contributors to all be of one sex. (Ironically, when you had 4 contributors, I would not have even noticed if they had all been men, even though the percentages would be the same.)
Anyway, did Michelle consider herself to be a Conspiratress?
Thus "Zioness"?
That was at least fifteen years ago, and the last time I ever heard anyone say Jewess (except for me, when I attempt to retell the story).
[I've been verbally spanked before for daring to utter a word like 'reporterette' on this site. But please don't take me wrong, baby!]
Does the etymology of this particular locution come from anti-Welsh prejudice? Or is it "politically incorrect" because of analogy?
I think the word generally refers to words that sound weird when used currently because hardly anyone uses them anymore.
Here is the dictionary definition:
Also, FWIW, I don't think "actress" is archaic — it is used more or less interchangeably with "actor" for female actors.
Or per Ambrose Bierce's Devil's Dictionary:
Pity that the language is being robbed of its richness because people take offense so easily.
On a related note, I remember when feminists hated using "girl" as a substitute for "woman". Now, every young woman I know uses "girl" to refer to women of any age. (Men are usually "guys".) I see that their mothers )often still insist on using "woman".
All of these young women are certainly feminists but they are so comfortable in their equality that they don't get bothered by mere words.
See also the change from "stewardess" to "flight attendant." Well, actually, see also the change from "sky girl" to "stewardess" to "flight attendant."
And don't get me started on modern civil procedure terms such as "permissive joinder."
A number of the women I work with (at a university, so no surprise) are quite concerned that our female students refer to themselves as "girls." I don't like it, though for other reasons: it seems to me to emphasize the continuation of adolescence in college, and emphasizes contuity with high school.
Having said that, I always have to respons by saying that the "girls" don't see the distinctions as "girls/men," or even "girls/boys." Rather, it is "girls/guys." The problem is that the female equivalent of "guys" is "gals." And that is considered "condescending," probably for reasons of social class.
I think it's time to bring "gal" into the 21st Century. "Guys and gals" would then work for most everyday situations.
1. Seems analogous to gender names for animals (especially, of course, "tigress" and "lioness," but also cow, sow, bitch, etc.).
2. No analogous "whitess" or "Christianess" or anything like that.
3. The counterpart of "Jewess" in the opposite direction is "Shiksa," which is certainly demeaning.
The masculine form, "shaygets", still retains more than a whiff of its original meaning: "illiterate".
Judges often fall into a similar age and circle.
Pluribus, How does 'manageress' imply that a woman cannot be a 'manager'--except in the sense that, well, a woman is a woman and not a man? that man and woman are different is a fact we are supposed to avert our eyes from, I expect; I prefer to be called 'sexist'.
Jgshapiro, Thanks. My own opinion is that if I know a word I'll use it so long as I can reasonably expect that my interlocutors will understand it. Simplistic it may be, but it's a rule I'm sticking to.
Malvolio, an online Yiddish dictionary defines sheygetz as "non-Jewish boy; impudent boy, smart aleck; wild Jewish boy," nothing about illiterate, though I am far from expert in these matters. Don't know why sheygetz should be anything more or less than the masculine counterpart to shikse. I think these are not used to disparage either individuals or groups as such, as familiar American slurs of various ethnicities are used, but rather as expressions of disapproval of dating or marrying non-Jews. Now shvartser is more problematic, arguably an objective descriptor ("black" for those who generally prefer to be called African-Americans, but for awhile not so long ago wanted to be called Blacks), but viewed understandably enough by many as an unacceptable slur.
Stevethepatentguy, I initially puzzled at your explanation of the origins of "welsh," but then realized that the English count Wales as a separate "country."
They called her a "manageress" rather than a "manager." (I thought that was in my original post.) I took it as implying that a woman could not be a manager and a man could not be a manageress, or at least they prefer to keep them distinct. It seemed quaint, but I didn't think along those lines. I thought a woman as well as a man could be a manager. If a woman was called a "doctoress" rather than a "doctor," would you regard that as sexist, or just a recognition of anatomical differences?
Interesting thoughts about "bimboness" and "blondness" (only natural blonds, or bottle blonds too?). She doesn't come across as a bimbo (was Marilyn Monroe a bimbo?), but Scarlet Johansson qualifies on blondness, and I think many Jewish grandmothers would be quick to categorize her as a shikse. Reportedly, though, Ms. Johansson's mother is/was Jewish. So, had Aron Feinberg married her, he might have made his grandparents (and himself) happy.
--
The Least Successful Equal Pay Advertisement
In 1976 the European Economic Community pointed out to the Irish Government that it had not yet implemented the agreed sex equality legislation. The Dublin Government immediately advertised for an equal pay enforcement officer. The advertisement offered different salary scales for men and women.
-- Stephen Pile, "The Book of Heroic Failures"
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As for Jewess being merely archaic, that rather begs the question. It's not a word Jews typically used to refer to themselves. Rather it was usually used by people who thought this otherness was important, and not always for the best of reasons. Among Jewish people, it's been peceived as derogatory for at least the 50 years within my direct memory.
But (and cf Ak Mike supra), "Why is 'Jewess' or 'Negress' offensive?"--I have been thinking about that. All the words in -ess that I could think of, apart from Jewess and Negress, refer to office/function (temptress, mayoress, stewardess, ambassadress, conductress)--I don't see any moral reason not to use those words: but the 'exceptional' Negress and Jewess I wonder about now. If they have been used only to further stigmatise some supposed otherness of the groups of persons to which such individuals belong, then I can't see how one could defend such usage. Negress, Jewess... is there any other comparable feminine use for other 'races' or ethnic groups? Negress may be in origin simply the anglicisation of the French negresse but I don't see how juive can become Jewess.
If a woman was called a "doctoress" rather than a "doctor," would you regard that as sexist, or just a recognition of anatomical differences?
If female doctors in an English-speaking society had commonly been referred to as doctoresses for two or three hundred years, I shouldn't have any trouble following the practice, no, nor would I change my usage because a group of people at that late stage of the game discovered something sexist about the word itself or its common use, given that English 'approves' the use of many other words in -ess for no other reason than the distinguishing of male from female. If someone today, in 2008 in south Florida, used the word 'doctoresse' seriously I should think he was a bit loopy, thereby incidentally confirming his true citizenship of this happy State.
A conversation about whether the only real distinction between man and woman is "anatomical differences" is perhaps too far off-topic here.
Now THAT's offensive.
We all know that she is *Dr.* Girlfriend.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Girlfriend