Herstory

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Herstory is a term which originated as a neologism. In feminist discourse, it is used to refer to history ("his story") from a feminist perspective, emphasizing the role of women or told from a woman's point of view. The word can be considered an example of folk etymology, a linguistic term for the modification of a word or phrase based on an analogy or a false etymology which is popularly believed to be true (see also faux amis). In this case, 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, although the noun story does descend from the Greek.

[edit] Usage

The Oxford English Dictionary credits Robin Morgan with coining the term in her 1970 book, Sisterhood is Powerful. In the book 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.^[1]

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.^[1]

During the 1970s and 1980s, second-wave feminists saw the study of history as a male-dominated intellectual enterprise and presented "herstory" as a means of compensation.^[2] The term, intended to be both serious and comic,^[3] became a rallying cry used on T-shirts and buttons as well as in academia; the notions of herstory prompted changes in school curricula and led to general acknowledgements of earlier historians' sexism, both unintentional and overt. Scholars have contended, however, that using the divisive term "herstory" effectively blinds the modern learner from the important contributions women made to historical scholarship in the nineteenth century and before.^[2]

The word has been used in feminist literature since its inception. At present, herstory is considered an "economical way" to describe feminist efforts against a male-centered canon.^[4] Recent books published on the topic include the following:

Herstory: Women Who Changed the World ISBN 0-670-85434-4
Daughters Of Eve: A Herstory Book ISBN 1-4140-4356-2

[edit] References

^ ^a ^b "Herstory", Oxford English Dictionary Online (Oxford University Press, 2006).
^ ^a ^b Devoney Looser, British Women Writers and the Writing of History (Johns Hopkins University Press: 2000). ISBN 0-8018-6448-8.
^ Angus Calder and Lizbeth Goodman, "Gender and Poetry", in Literature and Gender, ed. by Lizbeth Goodman (Routledge: 1996). ISBN 0-415-13573-7.
^ Robert J. Belton, Words of Art (2002).