Isn't the word human offensive?

[Anonymous]

Why does it always have to be huMAN, and MANkind when describing general homo sapien populations? Shouldn't we then create the words like huwoman and womankind also?

[America1st]

I'm not knocking you for your question. I just cvan't see why this is gender crap is so important. I think if you feminists look for every little thing that might lead towards the male gender as if it was created to harm you. I could care less if it mwas huwoman or womankind. I have a ton of more important thing to worry about than this crap. Are you inagreement with those that don't want little boys and girls to be called boys or girls? Maybe we should change the Bible so tha Eve was created before Adam. Would that make you happy. Of course not, you'll search for other stuff to complain about. Are oyu going to tell your young kids they are not a boy or girl. Do you see how utterly ridiculous this gender stuff is. Is your life so dull that you have to ponder totally unimportant issues. If you are a woman who feels slighted because of this, have no respect for yourself as a women. Real women are not insecure about silly stuff like this. They know who they are, they know what they are and they certainly don't need to change words to so they can feel good about themselves. I really feel for you. Most of us have so much more to worry about.

[OlderAndWiser]

You are straining to find something to rail about. With your logic, we should have a word "scurrent" to distinguish between doing the horizontal mambo with a current partner and doing it with an ex (sEX.) :)

[LaFemmeFatale]

I am curious too.
In my language mankind means "KACObrioba"-and "KACI" IS MAN IN Georgian.
It seems that word is similar in almost whole word and it refers to man rather than woman.
Even more, the word "human" translates in my language as "adamiani" and hey, do you know who was Adam? Right, the first man, according to creation myth.
Why are people called "adamiani"(someone who comes after Adam) and not "Eviani" for example?
It is not common only for English but also for many other languages, I assume.

[LaFemmeFatale]

*world

[SovereignessofVamps]

I love your different languages info!

[Prettygurl12]

Oh my dear sweet Jesus Christ. Stop.

If you don't understand Latin roots that's your problem.

It has nothing to do with sexism. Or men being better than women. It has to do with Latin and Latin roots and the basis for the Human language. Nothing to do with penises or vaginas.

Now stop. Take your nonsense quasi-sexist-hopeful thoughts elsewhere.

[AriadneSky]

if you study roots you would know 'man; was not originally a word describing adult males- it referred to earth then humams- nor did its orginal meaning continue to refer to the same thing.

adult males are now called men -along with all humans.

references changes and words change.

if understanding was her problem why would you be getting angry with her. and how does you accusing her of not understanding make up for your inability to think of how the question can be significant in ways beyond offense or not offense.

well anger does cloud vision, maybe thats your problem.

its not an illegitimate problem to look at. why is it taken for granted people should be called man when its absurd for them to be called woman. why should they be called one or the other. and why does it make everyone so angry. whether op was offended or not. all questions have depth regardless of how they are phrased. what makes this question so scary for everyone.

[AriadneSky]

language evolves, you can't make it 'stop' just bc you're annoyed. do you really think coming on here telling an anonymous person to stop thinking is going to change the fact things change..

[Prettygurl12]

@AriadneSky Please tell me you're not also jumping on her crazy train.

[rgb008]

True story:
Had a professor last school year who felt like he had to correct himself and apologize after saying "mankind" and changed it to "civilization". He was 100% sincere. Wasn't joking at all.
Rolled my eyes so hard, I gave myself a migraine.

[gaurav83]

both are different terms through. Mankind can be used for humans from the starting of the human evolution but civilization came into scene long after that. It's funny what ur professor did. Probably no one would give a shit about such thing but him mentioning it made it noticeable. May be civilization was the correct term to use in his sentence.

[SovereignessofVamps]

He sounds cool.

[RJGraveyTrain]

I don't think it really matters considering it has literally zero impact on... anything, other than women getting butthurt about it.

[AriadneSky]

language has an impact on everything. whether we can articulate that impact or not. language is how we develop our cognition and understanding of the world and ourselves in it. its how we develop self consciousness.. it is what makes us 'human', so it is hardly insignificant.

[RJGraveyTrain]

@AriadneSky I think that all depends on how you interpret language, and the words that you hear. Maybe it's just the "hick" way I grew up, but I was taught that words don't have power unless you allow them to. Understanding what a word means is one thing, but thinking that just because you say man instead of woman somehow defines you in a negative light - that's not the word's interpretation, that's how you see it. It's no different than somebody sitting there and telling you you're a bitch - what does it really mean outside of its definition unless you give it a negative value?

By all means you can sit here and try to convince people that saying human vs. huwoman has a negative impact but if I'm honest, I don't see it unless you give it a negative impact yourself.

[Azgeda]

*shrugs*
I suppose the English language can be patriarchal.
On the subject of language here's some food for thought.
In the Japanese language. Men and Women

Men are written as.
www.punipunijapan.com/.../man.png
Male - human.

Women are written as
i.ytimg.com/vi/V9QvY8wLy4c/maxresdefault.jpg
Female - human.

"Mankind."
www.japanesewordswriting.com/.../jinrui-h.jpg
Sorta - "human-kind"

Everyone is human first , then a characteristics is built ontop of that foundation.

Food for thought.

[Azgeda]

*I could be catastrophically wrong*

[ThisDudeHere]

What if you are wrong and it says "asshole" and "cunt" ?

[Azgeda]

@ThisDudeHere
Well do you want to be the asshole or the cunting?
One's get fucked , the other's full of shit :3

[TesticleMonster]

dude you've got to be a fucking idiot. are gendered nouns offensive? even though they're used by pretty much every romance language and countless others? or oh, why does the italian word for men "uomini" sound the English word for "women" while their word for "women" is "donne"? does that mean all italian men are women and their women are all named don?

or i guess the word therapist secretly means that all of them are rapists. or every word with the letter "I" is offensive because its so self centered. or what about in japanese where there's literally no way to refer to yourself without some kind of connotation, there's a ton of words for "i" and different ones fit different genders? do you have to change every word in every language to fit your stupid feminist perspectives? you fucking twit?

[cth96190]

This is another example of the misandric hatred of Feminism, combined with ignorance of the language and history.
Those who entertain this madness for even an instant should read what Orwell wrote about the manipulation of language.

[SovereignessofVamps]

Your response was poetic so it caught my attention, but... I think Asker honestly has a good point. There's lots of insults in this thread, but... I like her point.

[abc3643]

Jesus Fucking Christ! If this is the worst of your problems in life, consider yourself the luckiest huMAN in huMAN HIStory.

It is stupid shit like this that causes men to hate feminists and feminism and become Trump voters... and I am a feminist and Hillary voter!

[NatashaJ]

How you know she a feminist but not a troll doing this on purpose to piss you off? since so many trolls are on here you didn't assume first lol.

[AriadneSky]

why are you getting so upset. if it 'doesnt matter' than why do you care what 'humans' are called.

[abc3643]

@AriadneSky Why am I upset? It should be intuitively obvious, but young people don't have a very good grasp of human nature...

This sort of question - trolling or not - is just the sort of thing which creates reactionary hatred thus leading to hate crimes. It's the sort of thing that gets people shot.

[NatashaJ]

Dude that's out of line.

[abc3643]

@NatashaJ Of course it's out of line! Your in Canada where civility reigns except on the hockey ice rink or box lacrosse floor. Here in the good old US of A, impolite idiocy is our de facto national pasttime.

[NatashaJ]

There a reason some of you Americans sound psycho. I'm glad I come from a country where not everything is ok to say. and by the way lacrosse is use on grass if you didn't know that.

[abc3643]

@NatashaJ

[abc3643]

@NatashaJ Ummm... I agree with you about Canada and the US should be more like that.

As for lacrosse, you need to study Canadian culture.
Lacrosse is the National Summer Sport of Canada and the version played there is primarily box lacrosse which is played in hockey rinks during the summer. All the best box lacrosse players come from Canada.

[NatashaJ]

Lacrosse is play on grass most of the time have you seen lacrosse its illogical to play it on a ice rink. EVEN in winter it still on snow not on ice.

[NatashaJ]

ok my bad I read what you said wrong but lacrosse is usually on grass.

[SovereignessofVamps]

You're trolling yourself.

[abc3643]

@SovereignessofVamps I'm not allowed to talk anymore. The G@G admins, descendants of perpetrators of genocide, don't like it.

[John_Doesnt]

No, it's not offensive because you're ignorant of the origins of the English language. Everyone was initially called "mann", but that became confusing, so the word "wife-of-a-man" because slurred into "woman".
Don't like it? Too bad, because we're not changing it just for you.

[front2back]

It's only offensive because of how English changed over time. Hundreds of years ago "man" was a generic term for a person, regardless of gender. Somewhere along the line male people also started getting referred to as "man". So you now have "men" who are "humans" but technically "human" is supposed to be gender neutral.

[SovereignessofVamps]

Yep this.

[Hidden_P]

Omfg people need to calm the shit down. Seriously. Unknown it might iMASCULATE some men but maybe they deserve it if they will be so unManLy and we shall see the girls and see how FEMININE they are.
People need to be to homoNEEDY or maybe a more fancy HOMOGROUPIAN.

[Jxpxtxr]

That's literally only a problem in English lol, I haven't heard of any other language where there's a "Man" in "human" or "mankind" because in other languages (except from Latin where it's Hominum & hominis) it's usually "humankind" with s completely different word instead of "human". Eg. German: human = Mensch, man = Mann, French: human = humain, man = homme and in Japanese everything is just 人 (hito)

[SovereignessofVamps]

I didn't know this! Great info.

[NearlyNapping]

Why do women get a whole word and men only get part of a word? What's so special about women that they deserve two entire letters more than men?

I feel so inferior now. I'm sad and going to kill myself. It's obvious that us half humans are not wanted. Good bye cruel world.

[SovereignessofVamps]

This was a funny and semi good point!

[jason15300]

Please don't tell me your one of those butthurt feminists 🙄

[AriadneSky]

what if she is how does that change your life or stop you from using your brain. if mankind was suddenly referred to as woman kind. and generic man was now woman, can you honestly say it wouldn't get under your skin. seeing woman everywhere referring to you as a man? maybe it wouldn't bother you but you can at least think about it. regardless if what she is.

[jason15300]

First off that wouldn't get 'under my skin' as like everyone else, would just deal with it instead worrying about a stupid petty issue, there are better things to do than get pissed about why it's called human not huwoman or whatever she was saying, she might as well use her brain to solve something actually relevant. This site is used for asking things about guys and girls, not stupid little things which make no sense or what people really don't care about 😊

[iCroissant]

Human is a biological name for our species, in most languages when you speak of a group of something you refer to them in the male for (like in spanish).

If you're offended just ignore it and start using theword "people" but if you use "women kind" or "huwoman" in a essay or article you're going to be laughed at.

[Nothanks700]

No. That's stupid. I agree the words have patriarchal roots, but we aren't about to start changing he English language. You may as well propose calling men and women something completely different, and thats just dumb. There are bigger problems in the world friend.

[AriadneSky]

well whatif it was changed, what of you woke up tomorrow and the new genruc term for man kind was woman kind and woman. not a gender neutral term. would you still think its a waste of time to think about changing it?

maybe you would. i'd just like you to imagine. its easy to say things are stupid. harder to imagine them. no one seems to be thinking about it at all.

[Nothanks700]

@AriadneSky ok, imagined. The thing is I'd be used to the words; they'd be normalized to the point they are now. History is a gender neutral word, as is mankind, even if the words themselves have male centric roots; they are viewed as gender neutral.

[Nothanks700]

@AriadneSky look, I'm a supporter of woman's rights and equality movements. You have to pick your battles though; this distracts from actual issues.

[OrdinaryGentleman]

I don't know why people are so butthurt that they have to say you are a troll every word.
Even if someone is trolling so what? I found this question great because it is a great question.
Anyways... no we shouldn't change that because its just compounding the belief that bush did 9/11.

[anonman32]

You seem pretty butthurt by this are you MENstruating or something?

[TheWaterBear]

That's sexist. It should be called womenstruation!
...
...
/Sarcasm

[meatballs21]

Unfortunately, Millie Tant had you beaten over 20 years ago (second row, fourth panel)

3.bp.blogspot.com/.../Milli+Tant+1.jpg

[steveguitar]

Maybe but men did a lot of the controlling of the world, and still do in a lot of places. You see the same thing in most religions, in many societies, you hear about China (I think) where boys are valued over girls because they can make money or whatever or at least it used to be that way.

They should reexamine language and change the male-centric things like that

[SovereignessofVamps]

I like how you're open minded!

[steveguitar]

@SovereignessofVamps thanks, I try. Besides I have sisters and cousins and a mother. Never had a girl friend or dated a girl, because I'm shy and don't get many chances anyways, by I would want them on equal ground.

I think that maybe it's a bit too late for changing those sorts of words, but there is a possibility if people fight hard enough. I'm not sure that a lot of people really care.

[Anonymous]

First off, forget about its coming from 'humando..' That's an infrequently used form of the verb humare, meaning 'to bury.' Without going into detail, 'humando' means 'something which must be buried.'

The word is from Latin 'humanus.' That, in turn, is from the root 'hom-' (meaning: man) plus the suffix '-anus' (meaning: pertaining to). The original 'homanus' was an adjective meaning 'pertaining to a man.' An internal 'o' in Latin might be rendered by a 'u', and the spelling evolved to 'humanus' and then, through French, to English 'human.'

[AriadneSky]

do you think it would feel strange for you or no, if people were referred to as women?

[Opinion Owner]

yeah

[aftermath]

There's people getting killed in wars and children dying of hunger and there are people in the world who worry about huMAN and woMAN. Really? I'm not trying to have a go at you but what is so wrong with the words 'human' and 'woman'? People have used them for centuries and no one seems to be having a problem aye?

[SovereignessofVamps]

Smaller issues can matter a lot. Not saying this is an issue... but smaller issues always matter IMHO.

[aftermath]

@SovereignessofVamps but there is no issue here

[somebodysaycheese]

Oh dear God no. God created Man and from his rib he created Wo (man). Forreal no just stop everything.

[Rissyanne]

I think this question is ridiculous. We are drowning in political correctness.

[aeblalock]

I don't find it offensive at all. No need to change what was done - re-writing history is a waste of time.

Plus, the word "man" used to be gender neutral until about a thousand years ago.

[ThisDudeHere]

Because man used to be the generic term for what we understand as homo sapiens. Women were wyfmen (wife-men) and men were something else. But over time they took over the word man to signify both male and human, while wyfmen turned to women.

[AriadneSky]

and now men are men and everyone is men. she's talking about the present not the past. language changes a... thats not exactly a reason that words should not change. you are just illustrating they do change.

[AriadneSky]

separate from that, if mankind was suddenly womankind and man was woman, do you think youd not mind?

[ThisDudeHere]

@AriadneSky I don't care, I'm from Latvia and we have separate words for each - "vīrietis" (man), sieviete "woman", cilvēks "human".

[MalleyCat]

uh.. no. mankind isn't gender specific. It represents all of humanity. If you're getting offended over that, you just need to chill

[AriadneSky]

maybe her being offended or not offended is not the main point and there's more to think about if you were not afraid.

[musicbrain5]

Oh yeah, wow. The word "human" offends me SOOOOO MUCH. In fact, every single word and name that contains the letters MAN consecutively offends me.

Get bent.

[Paris13]

"HATE" is Much More Offensive. I do Not care to Use it.
No need to be Politically Correct though. Now I am Hearing they are Telling us to Refrain from Using the Words "Boy" and "Girl."
Watch out, Gag!
Good luck and Great question. xx

[carolann1920]

There is a politically correct movement afoot that says we should address eveyone in a neuter general way so no more FireMAN or WorkMAN or MANkind.
All jolly stupid but I suppose it keeps them happy.

[AriadneSky]

why is it anymore stupid than addressing people in gender specific terms?

[BellePepper]

I don't think you even tried at all with this one Anon. Troll better.

[DaniJ]

The word "woman" literally translated is "taken out of man"

[Smmyskittles]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Oh, no. We didn't just get to this point.

- It's not as big of a deal as you seem to want it make it.

[melme16]

Ever heard the muted group theory? Well according to that theory, English language (like many languages) is made by men therefore it SPEAKS FOR MEN. Hence, it mutes the minorities, which includes: ethnicities, genders, socioeconomic status, etc.

[OrangeBoy]

Because god made man first...
... It's a lot of paperwork and burocracy to change that now...

My point is... you can't isolate portions of words to get other meanings, because then i can also extract way more things form x words.

[AriadneSky]

what would be the point. if you were going to change these words logically it would not gave the word woman or man but a neutral term.

[AriadneSky]

hmm, im not 'offended' but i think it is illogical.

not sure why everyone is getting so emotional, since they are insisting it doesn't matter. quite the defensive crowd you have reached.. they seem quite offended.

in my opinion, it would be logical when referring to people that it is neutral term. doesn't matter if man used to mean everyone then switched bc it did switch. i do think growing up knowing you are a woman and referred to as man meaning all as well as seeing men referred to as man meaning man, has an impact. as if woman is an afterthought. plus its unnecessarily confusing. if you are reading about woman and men where 'all' are referred to as men but men are also referred to as men.,. not always clear if man is referring to people or a men. even professional aduktrscan

anyhow im curious all the guys complaining you have the audacity to ask his question, if tomorrow they woke up and they were referred to as 'woman' bc hat was the new terminology for all people, theyd not mind.

[Djaaaaaay]

Asker Try explaining that to a son or two who you gave birth to and they turns out gay because of a word.

[enis_Penvy]

Oh my God you have way to much fucking time on your hands

[mikemx55]

OMG you used the word HOMO sapien. Don't you think that's offensive to homos too?

[Kroakies_krickees]

Nice point. I can't stand it when people read into shit like this too much.

[Relentless_Hippie]

Please just log off the internet and never try to start an intellectual discussion ever again in your life.

[Intraluminal]

I know. I don't blame you, but you forgot MANipulate - you know how guys like to MANipulate girls, and MANifold, like why do you hate men? The reasons are MANifiold. What about that man who was a king long ago - OziMANias?

[SovereignessofVamps]

I don't think people, mostly guys, should have insulted you so much. You just asked a question. I don't really really agree, but I like your question! I love open minded things.

[Djaaaaaay]

You just can't get it yet.. Men don't really care one way or another about word , much less a law. were not built from words. We don't even care about pink down votes either , just does'nt change anything !!

[Anonymous]

It's not offensive, it's just the root of your language has strong masculine/feminine division like any other else in Romance language...

My native language is naturally gender neutral, for example the word for humanity and mankind has no hint of a "man", it's just one word for all.

[Kroakies_krickees]

No. Because a MAN is a huMAN and so is a woMAN. We can't help the way our species was named. It's dumb to read into something like this so deeply.

[Music_Hangover]

Wow. Please tell me you're not serious.
I think it's only offense to you...
I'm perfectly fine with it, human all day long.

[AriadneSky]

if you're begging her to not be serious id say you're 'offended'. i thin k its a silly thing to get offended over. you liove in a world with billions of people. people ask questions. why not try thinking instead of getting defensive. separate from taking offense or not taking offense over a word, there might be more to think about, in the question.

[Music_Hangover]

@AriadneSky I'm not offended, more like amused. Hence the "wow".

[guy532]

As an apache helicopter I find this offensive as well. I think we should just use the term apachewoman and apachewomenkind.

[5k1nny]

Everything is offensive nowadays. Even your replacement words are offensive by those standards because they still have the word man in them.

[5k1nny]

You literally can't say anything now without making someone, somewhere bitch and moan about it.

[Lemongrass123]

I think you're pushing politically correct a bit far here...

[bente2]

? No? It's not anything to do with a gender, it's just called that.

[Lua_Raye]

Come on now, girl, you're better than this. Don't overthink a simple word like this...

It's like finding a cat called Mouse, offensive

[Anonymous]

I hate it when people overthink stuff like this, like why do you have to cause an argument or a hassle. Just seriously stop! When I talk to a boy I see him as a friend (some cases a boyfriend) but I don't seem him as any different to me so just stop. Human is a human just dont overthink it.

[Casstiel]

Because there is a lot of rules in nature. You can't decide that we can't decide that no one can. This is settled.

[fauchelevent]

Not particularly. I think that there are much bigger problems than that.

[Maik567]

What about the word woMAN, Shouldn't that be offensive too then?

Seriously words only have as much meaning as you choose to give them.

[BCRanger10]

Oh please. Why are we looking to be offended by EVERYTHING now? Really? This is ridiculous.

[BellePepper]

You know they're trolling right?

[BCRanger10]

@BellePepper it would not surprise me in the least if she was serious l.

[BellePepper]

She isn't even a she XD

[SovereignessofVamps]

@BellePepper who is it?

[BellePepper]

@SovereignessofVamps I don't know specifically. I just assume it's one of those boys who likes to post ridiculous things until he gets banned and then make another account and do it all over again.

[Saoirse_Nua]

Even the new words have man in them sometimes I found myself trying to find a word that was less male. End up saying something like "the world's population".

[Anonymous]

Everything is offensive. Like the word create has "eat " in it, that can be offensive to overweight people and underweight people. Then calling people overweight and underweight is offensive because that's body shaming. I mean come on guys it's 2016.

[Pyrofox]

Its a generalized term like many has little to no effect.

[wankiam]

hey females can't have it all their own way... what about cows?

[Emmdk]

No. The word man is not necessarily gender specific. You also say that you're 'one man short' if you need more people to do something.

[AriadneSky]

you could also say you're one woman short if you needed people to do something. man is gender specific AND generic. thats the point. its both. its no more reasonable for it to be both than for woman to be both.

[Emmdk]

@AriadneSky No because its an idiom. Sure you can say it but its not the original phrasing

[Sexualchrist]

No because the word woMAN already has the word man in it so huMAN contains part of the name of both genders

[RasAlGhul]

what? that is so riddiculos... what point womans will stop? wait woMAN omg... just stop with that tinny shit. some woman aim for greatness and the get it because the fight for it.

[worldscolide]

Seriously, What is wrong with you? Go and troll somewhere else.

[AriadneSky]

why does there have to be something wrong. use your imagination., if man (generic term ) was suddenly woman (generic term), would you care?

[Mozzarellacheeze]

@AriadneSky 👊🏽

[worldscolide]

@AriadneSky I could honestly care less, but again its irrelevant. Only feminist/sjw idiots would push for something like this.