Why, please, should a table be male in German, female in French, and castrated in English?
French children, for instance, are male even if they are girls, in English there seems to be considerable doubt, in German they are definitely neuter.
Even more startling is the fact that the French give the feminine gender to the components of the male anatomy that make him male, and the male gender to the components of the female anatomy that make her a female.
In view of all this let’s keep a stiff upper lip.
Personally, I’m not very good at keeping a stiff upper lip. But when I need illumination, I read, and in the discussion of gender, who better to dispense wit and wisdom than Marlene? There are also the related issues of identity, and further, how appearance impacts perception. Shakespeare took on this thread of ideas several times in his plays, his first cross-dressing female, Julia, appears in Two Gentlemen of Verona, at a time when women weren’t allowed onstage, thus adding another twist; the cross-dressing Julia had to be played by a young man.
In Prince Harry Boy to Man, by William Kuhn, a female reporter impersonates a man in order to be embedded with the troops in Afghanistan, and all sorts of Shakespearean sauciness ensues…
All the above seems ripe for discussion. Won’t you join me?
And once again, thanks for dropping by.
Cheers! V