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What's the deal with male/female/man/woman grammar?
October 2, 2007 6:28 AM   RSS feed for this thread Subscribe

A guy becomes a "male president" but if it's a girl she is a "woman president." Can someone explain this grammar?

Shouldn't it be "male president" & "female president OR "man president" & "woman president"? I have to admit that the latter pair sounds pretty dumb to me, but I'm happy just to know which is correct and why.

This has boggled me ever since the headlines about Harvard's new president, but then I started noticing this unbalanced usage in other text as well.
posted by bryanboyer to writing & language (7 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
Previously
posted by CunningLinguist at 6:33 AM on October 2, 2007


thank you! I kept trying to search the archives but didn't find this gem.
posted by bryanboyer at 6:43 AM on October 2, 2007


ITs true that some will say "woman president" its also true to say that some will say "female president"

I think the latter sounds correct..
posted by crewshell at 6:48 AM on October 2, 2007


I wonder how much of what is preferred unconsciously has to do with prosody, though. A historical shift could be due to the shift in pronunciations on either side of the space which would effect the rhythm of the compound.

"fe" as a prefix is a more stressed, shorter accent than "wo" so changes the total effect of the word even though "male" might be preferred over "man" else-wise.

(I don't really buy that the shift (and disparity) is due to a concerted social effort.)
posted by pokermonk at 7:14 AM on October 2, 2007


Well, you are correct. It should be "female" if the counterpart is "male."

But a lot of things "should" be in our society regarding gender and social constructs and they aren't yet. Hopefully one day.
posted by agregoli at 7:34 AM on October 2, 2007


I think pokermonk has a good point. "MAN PRES-i-dent" has stressed-stressed-unstressed-unstressed syllables which sounds a bit forced. If you use "MA-le PRES-i-dent" you have pretty much alternating stresses, which sounds more natural.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 8:32 AM on October 2, 2007


But a lot of things "should" be in our society regarding gender and social constructs and they aren't yet. Hopefully one day.

But that doesn't apply to language. There's no reason why the preferred form should be anything.
posted by oaf at 9:01 AM on October 2, 2007


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