Built-in language prejudice ^^;;

[Risu-chan]

Been translating away and I hit something that made me stop and think irritated things about the prejudices inherent in the English language.

It's one of the grim little nursery rhymes that show up at random, of course; in Japanese, one of the lines describes the man as something that would best be approximated in English as "harlot/slut".

But there ISN'T an English-language word that heaps the same contempt on a man's head for promiscuity as there is for women.

After much wrestling, I ended up deciding on "lady-killer," because although in English that's usually admiring, this IS the Kaori Yuki universe, and of COURSE the double meaning has got to be appropriate, since I can't get the actual connotation into it. (And it's also appropriate on its own because of when the sicko little nursery rhyme gets repeated.)

Still, I'm now very cranky with the inherent sexual prejudices hardwired into the language I was born into...

[Breze]

Sleaze (don't think I spelt that right ^^; ), womanizer, egotistical bastard, player... but you're right. And I hate it how male 'scores' whenever they... well, 'do the deed', so to speak. But when a girl does it, she's considered a slut. How does that work? It's times like this when I wish I could do 'gendered language' at school. Instead, I have to do 'retreat from the global'. ::rolls eyes::

[rev.tsukiyama]

Sad but true.
I've always spent more tme hanging around with blokes than other females and there is a lot of inequality when it comes to sexual issues. Having said that I just call men, sluts, tarts, whores etc anyway. Ironically enough, I was recently called "manly" by a gay man. Mmm. Bitchy.

[Risu-chan]

>Ironically enough, I was recently called "manly" by a gay man. Mmm. Bitchy.

^^;; Well, from that perspective it's a compliment, right? Presumably, at least...

(sweatdrop) remembering when I spent 6 weeks answering to 'Hey Bill.' Don't remember if I've told that story here or not...

[crisisdreams]

Tell us dear. I'm interested! ~.^

[Risu-chan]

^_^;; Well, I was a double major in college (English and technical theater). Since we spent a lot of time around things like pneumatic nail guns, the unofficial "school uniform" for tech theater majors was jeans, a T-shirt, and a long-sleeved flannel shirt. So there were a lot of us generally dressed like that building sets.

Then Bill got cast as a Marine, so he knew he'd have to shave his head. So before he shaved his head, he tried dyeing it lots of colors and finally ended up on one that looked exactly like mine. My hair was shorter then (about shoulder-length) and his was about that length too. I'm about 5'10"; he's about 5'11".

So he spent most of six weeks answering to "Hey Dena! Oh wait never mind..." and I spent most of six weeks answering to "Hey Bill! Oh wait never mind..." ^^;;;