![]() But it certainly forms part of the unholy jigsaw of factors that led to this unbalanced society. Clearly, language is not solely responsible. They're not trusted to write factually about the world around us as much as men are as Kira Cochrane's investigation illustrated: 78% of newspaper articles are written by men. Women aren't trusted with serious positions as much as men are it's well documented that they're disproportionately represented everywhere from boardrooms to the corridors of power (just one in five MPs are women). Tellingly, if you've ever interviewed or spoken to Eagle, as I have several times, you'll know that she's the most logical and rational thinker you could meet. Now fast-forward to the current cabinet – I had to delve back to the last government for a pro-feminist minister as there are such slim pickings in the current one – when David Cameron infamously told Angela Eagle, one of the shadow cabinet's brightest minds, to "calm down, dear". Instead of proposing policies, she embarked on a "crazy crusade" (Dominic Lawson, the Times), or "a mad equality bill" (Simon Heffer, the Telegraph). Politics aside, the language spoke for itself: she was belittlingly labelled "mad Hattie" in Boris Johnson's Daily Telegraph column. Perhaps, I'd suggest, because she was a woman who was succeeding in undoing their patriarchal privilege. The right created their own lexicon for "loony lefty" Harriet Harman. We seem to describe hyper-intelligent women and men using different value judgments. But what if our invented character is a woman? My guess is that she would be described as "shrill", "unhinged", "depressed", "bonkers" and almost certainly "hysterical". ![]() If he's a man, he's a "bearded eccentric intellectual", "misunderstood" or a "tortured genius". This person is quirky, outspoken and highly intelligent – sometimes to the bewilderment of those around them. These etymologies have cemented a polarisation of the female and male mental states: men being historically associated with rationality, straightforwardness and logic women with unpredictable emotions, outbursts and madness. Coming from lunacy – a monthly periodic insanity, believed to be triggered by the moon's cycle (remind you of anything?). This was a condition thought to be exclusive to women – sending them uncontrollably and neurotically insane owing to a dysfunction of the uterus (the removal of which is still called a hysterectomy). It's a word with a very female-baiting history, coming from the Latin hystericus ("of the womb"). Delving back into etymology and fiction – and a consideration of how these linguistic roots have branched into a modern weed of unfairness – can help us better understand the social consequences of the words we choose. ![]() It's an unsavoury tradition, stretching back through literature and language, that obscures the way women are viewed and discussed to this day. T he distinct feminisation of madness in our language is an insane semantic state of affairs.
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