10 May Words are not just sounds
Whilst we never use the term ‘boys’ to refer to grown men, no one bats an eyelid when grown women are referred to as ‘girls’.
The above video produced by Men Against Violence (L-Irgiel Kontra l-Vjolenza) is genuinely intended to raise awareness and defend women, and yet, unbelievably, it refers to women as ‘girls’.
“It’s never ok to hit a girl,” says one of the signs in the video.
Another says: “A girl is not your property, she’s a human being.”
But when the signs refer to males, the word ‘boys’ is never used ‘Men against violence” and another sign says ‘Ghax jien ragel (not ‘tifel’) jien ma nerfax idejja.
Whilst the initiative should be applauded, the use of the word ‘girl’ to refer to grown ‘women’ is actually part of the problem. We need to get it into our heads that words aren’t just sounds and that when we use male words as the norm we label maleness as normal and everything else as ‘the other’.
This is probably the most subtle but effective way of making every other group less important, more invisible, and ultimately easier to justify injustice and violence against.
