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The Rise and Fall—and Rise—of “Jewess.” “We were experimenting with whether or not this is a term that can be reclaimed,” says Rosenbaum. Linguists call this “semantic reclamation,” a phenomenon that Robert Burchfield at Fowler's considers “one of the paradoxes of the 20th-century.” As Geoffrey Nunberg, a linguist at the University of California, Berkeley, says, “It's throwing whatever historical stereotypes were associated with it back in the face of the people who used them," like the gay community co-opting “queer” and African-Americans using the N-word. “By reclaiming it and celebrating what's specific about Jewish women's experience,” says Rosenbaum, “we can explore and challenge the kinds of stereotypes that exist about Jewish women.”
I had heard this term so often on television (Will & Grace I believe) and in no other context, that I was unaware of the taboo. I was amazed when I looked it up in One Source to find that Encarta's dictionary redirects to a disclaimer when one clicks on the entry advising that parents may want to exclude the dictionary entry from their children's viewable page cache.
Bravo to the reclaimers, a word only has power so long as we endow it… Reintroducing a word into common usage and thus allowing its definition to evolve is the only way to diminish its negative impact on any culture. By roping off entire sections of the lexicon, we do not allow vocabulary to change along with social attitudes, but rather preserve hatred and make monument to it.
I know these words inspire powerful reactions in many people, so I won't expound upon the argument, but just wanted to make mention of the happiness I felt when I learned of the empowerment of this particular group of women.
Thanks Grant for sharing.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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