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Arabic Twitter Stars Come Face-to-Face in Cairo

By Courtney C. Radsch

WeNews correspondent

Thursday, January 26, 2012

After a year of courageous digital leadership, female activists from the Middle East and North Africa–some of them Twitter superstars–met in Cairo last week. It was a chance to meet face-to-face, savor revolutionary success and weigh setbacks. Click here for the complete article

Posted by on Feb 01, 2012 at 4:31pm | No Comments

French town acts to set aside indiscreet, gender-biased titles

From now on, the women of Cesson-Sévigné, population 16,000, will be addressed as “madame” regardless of age or marital status.

“Mademoiselle,” the Gallic form of “miss,” is normally used for young, unmarried women, thus, feminists say, openly declaring them either available or unwanted in a way that men, always referred to as “monsieur,” are not. A French form of “ms.” would solve the problem, but there you go. . . .

Exactly when a woman reaches the age when she becomes a “madame,” married or otherwise, is not only a matter of debate but a social minefield; women of a certain age will often ask themselves whether the waiter who calls them “mademoiselle” is being gallant or sarcastic. . . .

French movie stars Catherine Deneuve, 68, once married, and Jeanne Moreau, 84 this month and three times married, prefer to be addressed as “mademoiselle” and, as a quirky exception to the rule, are allowed, as actresses, to claim that right.

“It’s about eliminating all terms that could be discriminatory or indiscreet,” the town hall at Cesson-Sévigné, a suburb of the western town of Rennes, in Brittany, said in a statement explaining that the title “mademoiselle” had been banished from all official forms since the beginning of the year.
See the complete article at

N. B. : Of the phrase chiennes de garde the standard translation is “women’s libbers” – lit. “female watch-dogs, bitches on the lookout”

TRANSLATION -
“The term ‘Mademoiselle’ was a courteous title, and during a certain period there was even a masculine equivalent – ‘Mon damoiseau’ – though it was rarely used, and later fell out of use completely.” (The word damoiseau may be translated as ‘squire’.)

Douglas Harper has -
[Eng. damsel, Fr. demoiselle] O.Fr. dameisele “woman of noble birth”, modified by association with dame from earlier donsele, from Gallo-Romance *domnicella, dim. of L. domina “lady”

Posted by on Jan 23, 2012 at 5:47pm | No Comments

Considering women and the world of sports blogs

Sports Blog Review:

womenssportsnation.com

womentalksports.com

womenssportsinformation.com

Reviewed by Narissra Punyanunt-Carter and Stacy Carter, Texas Tech University

Richard Harris (2009) states that, “media sports are a part of everyone’s consciousness today, even those who have no interest in sports themselves” (p. 119). Sports are a big attraction for both male and female. A growing trend of sports fanatics is the use of sports blogs. Yet, research in this area has been somewhat limited. Blogs are a new and important communication medium for those who have an opinion about sports and provide a fascinating place to observe and consider gender tendencies in language use.

More Sports Blog Review. . .

Posted by on Feb 05, 2011 at 4:34pm | No Comments

Books debunk misconceptions about human brain and gender

by Anita Taylor, December 27, 2010

Fine, Cordelia. Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference. NY: W. W. Norton & Co., 2010.

Jordan-Young, Rebecca. Brain Storm: The Flaws in the Science of Sex Differences. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2010.

How does it happen that two such important publications appear almost simultaneously! Who cares? They are worth all the buzz we can create for them. Seek them out; time spent will be well rewarded. And, be sure your library orders them.

More on Brain Rhetoric. . .

Posted by on Jan 03, 2011 at 4:08pm | No Comments