Nguyet Tran
I think the title doesn't do justice to the book because the book discusses much more on a meta level and is not specific to feminism. Some key learnings I really like in the book:
- We should be curious about and open to new language trends. Grammars and vocabs are not static, they have changed a lot throughout history. Our currently so-called correct grammar used to be considered incorrect in the past. Hence, you should not argue that “it's grammatically incorrect” to refuse to use the new language trends like “they/them”. You should also not judge someone's diction, voice tone, etc, because they are all the results of their intentions and cultural movements. Thanks to the book, I now have a more open mind about this topic.
- Creating new languages to promote a cultural movement would not work unless there IS one. The cultural movement will help the languages be picked up, not vice versa.
- There are many negative cuss words, which we can reclaim with a positive meaning. For example, “queer” used to have a negative connotation, but it's now publicly and proudly owned by the queer community. Same with “bitch”, now it can be used to describe a cool woman (like “Bad Bitch” from Rihanna and Beyonce). The reverse can also happen, and it's a non-stop tug of war.
I think the title doesn't do justice to the book because the book discusses much more on a meta level and is not specific to feminism. Some key learnings I really like in the book:
- We should be curious about and open to new language trends. Grammars and vocabs are not static, they have changed a lot throughout history. Our currently so-called correct grammar used to be considered incorrect in the past. Hence, you should not argue that “it's grammatically incorrect” to refuse to use the new language trends like “they/them”. You should also not judge someone's diction, voice tone, etc, because they are all the results of their intentions and cultural movements. Thanks to the book, I now have a more open mind about this topic.
- Creating new languages to promote a cultural movement would not work unless there IS one. The cultural movement will help the languages be picked up, not vice versa.
- There are many negative cuss words, which we can reclaim with a positive meaning. For example, “queer” used to have a negative connotation, but it's now publicly and proudly owned by the queer community. Same with “bitch”, now it can be used to describe a cool woman (like “Bad Bitch” from Rihanna and Beyonce). The reverse can also happen, and it's a non-stop tug of war.