Herstory
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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.)
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[edit] Usage
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.[1] The Oxford English Dictionary 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.[2]
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.[2]
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.[3] The term, intended to be both serious and comic,[4] became a rallying cry used on T-shirts and buttons as well as in academia; the notions of herstory prompted changes in school curricula[citation needed] and led to general acknowledgements of earlier historians' sexism[citation needed], both unintentional and overt.
[edit] 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.[3]
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."[5][6]
[edit] Books
Recent books published on the topic include:
- Herstory: Women Who Changed the World ISBN 0-670-85434-4
- Daughters Of Eve: A Herstory Book ISBN 1-4140-4356-2
- HerStory ISBN 9781604025514
[edit] References
- ^ Robert J. Belton, Words of Art (2002).
- ^ 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.
- ^ Global Language Monitor web page[1] (2006) .
- ^ "Macaca" named most politically incorrect word. Reuters (Dec 16, 2006). Retrieved on 2007-07-13.
