Are Women INVISIBLE?

As a linguist, I've studied English for (let's say) approximately fifteen years. No kidding.

What about English could possibly enthrall a linguist that long? So glad you asked. Even if you didn't, it's time to realize that some aspects of English appear to be (at least) unkind to those of us who aren't men. You haven't noticed?

If not, you're not reading some of the recent books by both (wo)men and men--books like: Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language, by Amanda Montell; Unspinning the Spin: The Women's Media Center Guide to Fair and Accurate Language, by Rosalie Maggio; 'Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men' by Caroline Criado Perez, 'Outspoken: Why Women's Voices Get Silenced and How to Set Them Free' by Veronica Rueckert, 'What's Your Pronoun: Beyond He and She, by Dennis Baron or 'All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation by Rebecca Traister.

I have read these and more. Each one takes a unique approach to the issue of how overwhelmingly men control our lives, and yet, none of these takes on what I believe is a fundamentally core issue: how English uses words against those of us who aren't men. In fact I've written a book about it titled 'Breaking The Bias of English'.

Why? Because English has over 10,000 words that adulate men and less than a dozen that refer to us and believe me, 'adulate' is not a word I'd use for what English does to words for us. In fact, quite contrarily, English likes to attach words for us to 'he' words, like, 'woMAN', woMEN, sHE, HEr, feMALE, etc.

It occurs to me that it would be difficult, if not impossible, for us to rise to equal standing in English if we have no words of our own.

Fear not; I'm not suggesting we rewrite English...I am however, going to suggest that we change SIX WORDS. That's all. Really, you ask? How can I claim that we can equalize an entire language in just six words? Just watch. It's all in my book.

'Breaking The Bias Of English' is an e-book costing about $1.99. I didn't write it to make money--I wrote it because English is now our world's most commonly spoken language and we need words for those of us who aren't men. How can we have a 'we' world if most of our gendered words are 'he' words?

A New (WEnglish) Twist on L-O-V-E

What is love, actually–(besides a movie I watch every Christmas)? Thousands of books, songs and movies address it, try to define it, analyze it, and tell us whether we’re in it or not.

As a linguist, I like to find clues to meaning within actual word spelling, to see if there’s a deeper meaning hiding inside. LOVE is no exception.

Typically I start by splitting a word into syllables, but LOVE has only one, so that’s no fun.

I’ll also conduct word twists, taking letters of a word apart and rearranging to see what other words can be created. With LOVE, I found only two, if you’ll allow a man’s name ‘OVE’, which is a good but sort of sad movie.

Then there’s ‘VOLE’, a mouse-like creature that’s very hard to appreciate as my sister will attest to, because they love to burrow and chew through roots of living plants, even trees!.

In desperation, I finally spelled LOVE backwards and OLÉ! I was stunned and delighted. LOVE spelled backwards is EVOL, which is not quite a word— however, my rule with word play is that I can use letters in words more than once. With that in mind, I could spell ‘EVOLVE’. Isn’t that wonderful?

Yes, LOVE EVOLVES, doesn’t it? (Some of you are probably saying, “Yes and it DISSOLVES, too”), but isn’t it really we who evolve?

Being ‘in love’ allows us to be INVOLVED.

Wherever or not you find yourself in a love relationship with another person this month, make sure YOU are at tha top of that list! Loving yourself is essential to loving others. If you’re not sure how to love yourself, check out my memoir, ‘I Was A Yo-Yo Wife…Until I Learned THIS’. Once I got THIS, my love relationship changed in about ten minutes and has lasted more than 36 years!

Vivian Probst

Author, Linguist, Creator of WEnglish for WEquality