Dreama said:
Well, certainly I missed the part where you had rewritten the dictionary. Have you been off your meds long?
Fraggle Rocker said:
What's wrong with the dictionary definitions? They've served our language just fine for hundreds of years......Whether these words have positive or negative connotations, and therefore whether it's an insult or a compliment to call a woman that, depends on the moral codes of the era and culture and in our culture it's generally been an insult. But the root meanings are pretty clear.
Dreama, your frustration and way of talking clearly shows that you are speaking from a point of view of a person from 'vested interest group'. I can't expect you to be objective in determining or accepting the truth then.
Dictonary definitions are only reflections of the language we use, and how we use it. And our language is often a reflection of the mores and values we hold as a society. Often, in matters such as these we invent words to describe specific situations or qualities that we want to uphold or denigrate --- depending on how we want our people to think and act.
Slut or whore is one example. The other example is 'unmanly'. There is no direct equivalent of 'slut' for a man --- if there would be an equivalent it would read something like 'virile' or 'real man'. And similarly there is no equivalent word for 'unmanly' for woman. The dictionary doesn't have the word 'unwomanly'.
As societies and their mores change, languages and dictionary meanings also change --- and new ones are (sometimes artificially) introduced, while several old ones become obsolete.
The concept of slut or whore was, from the point of a man, a good 'reign' on sexually aggressive women, who otherwise were given extreme (although invisible) power over men to obtain sexual gratifications (and thus exploiting them) --- as women had been made the source of man's 'social masculinity'.
The modern heterosexual society is openly pro-women and anti-man. It has taken the sting from the word whore or slut, and it really doesn't mean all that bad for women in the west. But that means that the situation of men has fallen down immenesly, since now they have few safeguards against being exploited by women (see the thread: female sexpidemic). One day, the word would probably be written off from the dictionary.
And Dreama, that's where when we want to find out the truth, it becomes important to remove the words with cultural connotations in order to find out what nature says and wants.
After all, the word 'homosexual' was introduced in the early 20th century only to marginalise and denigrate scientifically, sexual bonds between men --- as religion was weakening. It was incorporated into the dictionary way afterwards. The concept of heterosexuality came much later.
Do you know, originally heterosexuality referred to a sexual perversion where the individual wanted way too much sex with the opposite-sex? Today, we have a different meaning in the dictionary.
But if we can find out (as I have shown) another angle to the truth, we can and should have another meaning for these words.
This is Globalisation backwards --- from east to the west. West has entered our societies, has changed our concepts and definitions (including dictionary definitions!), why are you so afraid of your own definitions being challenged!
