Comments on: Alas, Poor Heroine

By: Alice

Alice — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 20:32:37 +0000

I remember being disturbed upon learning the alternate meaning to “gay”. I was around six and a few of my favorite books involved heroines singing gaily.

I kind of gave them The Look for a while.

How is “actress” discriminatory to females? By that logic, “actor” is discriminatory to males!

By: wyn

wyn — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 21:10:06 +0000

I was on a kick reading every last L.M. Montgomery story I could get my hands on. We were asked to write a short composition in grade seven and I wrote as if I were inspired by the seaside stories in late Victorian times – in retrospect, the timeline of my composition was not really that clear – and used the word “gay” to describe happy feelings. I was tenderly hurt when the teacher cross it out for “happy”!

By: Benjamin Baxter

Benjamin Baxter — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 03:12:53 +0000

Actually, heroin is pretty expensive. But no worries — I know a guy.

By: Rita Day

Rita Day — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 21:22:57 +0000

I got the look many times along with a gingerly raised hand and a helpful hint on additional meanings to the one that I knew. ‘Poked’ raised shocked eyebrows, ‘gay’ really puzzled them, one term was a pop group to them, which I had heard of but didn’t think they had taken over the phrase ‘dire straits’. My last faux pas before retiring was to raise two fingers in a Churchillian salute of good will and luck; I had my hand the facing the wrong way! But I will never forget the girl who whined,’You use words that we don’t understand!’ My response was,’You learn that way; it’s my job to teach you a wider vocabulary’.

By: M Mitchell

M Mitchell — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:37:09 +0000

@C. Llanes – do you think it’s funny also when women call themselves doctors instead of doctresses, or aviators instead of aviatrices, or do you recognize that the words “doctor” and “aviator” are now accepted as gender-neutral in English, and translate appropriately? I thought translators interpreted meaning, rather than simply converting individual words out of a Spanish-English dictionary. Otherwise, what is the point in hiring one? A dictionary is cheaper, and Babelfish is free.

I think the word “heroine” should stay in the English language, just because I’ve seen this spelling error so often and it makes me laugh every time.