Information AboutHerstory |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT HERSTORY | |
| feminism | |
| historiography | |
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Herstory is a Neologism coined in the late 1960s as part of a feminist critique of conventional Historiography . In Feminist discourse the term refers to History (ironically restated as "his story") written from a feminist perspective, emphasizing the role of women, or told from a woman's point of view. (The word ''history'' (from the Ancient Greek ιστορία, or ''istoria,'' meaning "a learning or knowing by inquiry") is etymologically unrelated to the Possessive Pronoun ''his''.) USAGE The word has been used in credits Robin Morgan with coining the term in her 1970 book, '' Sisterhood Is Powerful .'' Concerning the feminist organization WITCH , Morgan writes: :The fluidity and wit of the witches is evident in the ever-changing acronym: the basic, original title was Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell and the latest heard at this writing is Women Inspired to Commit Herstory."[http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/00293243?single=1&query_type=word&queryword=herstory&first=1&max_to_show=10 Herstory ", Oxford English Dictionary Online (Oxford University Press, 2006). In 1976, Casey Miller and Kate Swift wrote in ''Words & Women,'' :When women in the movement use herstory, their purpose is to emphasize that women's lives, deeds, and participation in human affairs have been neglected or undervalued in standard histories. During the 1970s and 1980s, ; the notions of herstory prompted changes in school Curricula and led to general acknowledgements of earlier historians' sexism, both unintentional and overt. CRITICISM Scholars have contended that using the term effectively blinds the modern learner from the important contributions women made to historical scholarship in the nineteenth century and before. The Global Language Monitor , a nonprofit group that analyzes and tracks trends in language, named ''herstory'' the third most politically incorrect word of 2006--rivaled only by ''" Macaca "'' and ''" Global Warming Denier ."'' Global Language Monitor web page'' {Link without Title} '' (2006) |
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