Metaglossia: The Translation World

French Education Ministry's Sexist Dictionary - Written By Children | @worldcrunch Worldcrunch. com. New eyes on the world, a new voice in global journalism.

After Australian prime minister Julia Gillard publicly excoriated center-right opposition leader Tony Abbott for his history of misogynist speech, critics told her she didn’t understand the meaning of the word misogyny. Textbook woman-discrediting move. But in response, the best dictionary in Australia has updated its definition of the word misogyny to reflect its contemporary usage, the Guardian reports. That includes "entrenched prejudice against women," like Gillard described, and not just "pathological hatred." "Perhaps as dictionary editors we should have noticed this before it was so rudely thrust in front of us as something that we'd overlooked," Macquarie Dictionary editor Sue Butler told the AP. Now the opposition says that changing the definition of misogyny “undermines Macquarie Dictionary in its entirety” — ugh, prescriptivists — and maintains that calling Abbott a misogynist was a "vicious personal smear." This from the guy whose campaign called Gillard a "witch."

Julia Gillard speech prompts dictionary to change 'misogyny' definition [Guardian UK]

I realize that some women prefer to walk into the hospital to birth their babies with the mindset that the medical care providers are the experts and they are prepared to hand their care over with complete trust. I also realize that generally this works out, and generally women are satisfied with their care. This column is not for them. This column is to address the lack of knowledge and empowerment and the dissatisfaction that many other women feel after childbirth.

What might happen if we educated families about birth processes and came to see birth as a normal and natural state of being?
From a feminist standpoint of empowerment through knowledge and the ability to choose, this is problematic. I suppose one could argue that women make the choice to not have knowledge about the birthing process and to hand their care over, but I’m not sure if a choice can be made without the relevant information. Too often I hear that women do so because they are afraid of “something” happening, or a story of a friend who had a specific tragedy. Women don’t seem to know what those somethings are when questioned specifically about it, or to know if their risk factors were comparable to the women in the stories they’ve heard. This seems to lead to women being saddened by aspects of their birth experience, who learn only after it’s too late that they didn’t know things would unfold in the way they did. As I teach about standard medications and routine procedures used during childbirth, the moms (and dads) who are choosing to become educated are shocked at things that are being done to themselves and their babies as a matter of routine care without their consent or knowledge, and without medical indication for the procedures. Informed consent cannot be given without the ability to refuse.

What might happen if we educated families about birth processes and came to see birth as a normal and natural state of being?

Need for education

Education around birth is in fact not happening to women’s satisfaction. In a recent survey of 1,252 women in the United States conducted by the American College of Nurse-Midwives, 62% said they did not have conversations with their care providers about how to stay healthy during pregnancy, and 80% said they did not discuss how to prepare for motherhood. If we are to make decisions about our health and the health of our children, we need the relevant information to do so. Women need to be empowered to ask the questions they need, with care providers they feel have time for them. Changing our language around birth may be a first step in this process.

The language inherent in the medical framework is pathology driven. It can be a struggle to view the body, especially in pregnancy, as a healthy variation or as normal. Words like “labour” and “contraction” imply pain and hardship and “failure to progress”, “trial of labour” or “incompetent cervix” suggest that women inherently do not have the ability to give birth. I suggest that we apply an awareness to the words that are used around us, so that we are aware of the unconscious perceptions we have about birth, and life in general. This is not only a cornerstone of the child birth education program I am involved with, but is important for overall health and well being in my counseling practice.

Translating Women: Talking about Women in Translation Studies: Rackham Centennial Alumni Lectures

Event Date:
Tue, Oct 9 2012 - 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm
Building:
Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library
Room:
The Gallery
Sponsor:
Comparative Literature
View on UM Events
Professor Luise von Flotow received her PhD in 1991 from the University of Michigan and is currently Professor and Director of the School of Translation and Interpretation at the University of Ottawa.

She is the author of Translation and Gender: Translating in the Era of Feminism (1997) and editor of Translating Canada (2007) and Translating Women (2011), and she has published English translations of German and French literature.

This lecture is free and open to the public.

En Suède, le troisième sexe a son pronom
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STOCKHOLM (AFP) - En Suède, la question de la parité dépasse la simple égalité des salaires, de la représentation et même des rôles assignés aux sexes: elle est entrée dans la langue, où un pronom, le neutre "hen", tente de s'imposer entre "il" et "elle".

"Il n'y a presque rien de plus à faire sur le terrain de la parité alors on lance des idées de plus en plus bizarres", affirme à l'AFP, mi-amusée, mi-irritée, la journaliste indépendante Elise Claesson.

Dans le royaume scandinave, où les femmes ont obtenu le droit de vote dès 1921, deux des 16 mois du congé parental sont réservés à l'autre "parent" afin que l'homme aussi puisse s'impliquer dans l'éducation des nouveaux-nés.

L'utilisation du "hen" est devenue plus fréquente en 2012, après la sortie d'un livre pour enfants, "Kivi och Monsterhund" ("Kivi et le chien monstrueux"), qui a supprimé "han" (il) et "hon" (elle) afin, selon son auteur Jesper Lundqvist, de s'adresser aux enfants et non pas aux petits garçons et aux petites filles.

Le "hen" a été inventé par des linguistes dans les années 60, en pleine vague féministe, alors que la référence à un "il" hypothétique devenait politiquement incorrecte. Il s'agissait de "simplifier la langue" et d'éviter d'écrire "il/elle", indique à l'AFP la linguiste Karin Milles.

The updated NIV Bible has gained another critic: the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. In a recent report, a panel of Lutherans cautioned against use of the new NIV over gender-related issues.

Julien Cart : Les féministes et linguistes dénoncent depuis longtemps le machisme de la langue. La langue est un miroir des rapports sociaux de sexe de l'époque en question, un miroir des représentations mentales des sociétés à un moment donné.
En effet, la langue est en constante évolution, comme d'ailleurs nos représentations sociales et les rapports sociaux de sexe. Il est donc normal lorsqu'on se bat pour plus d'égalité, et que l'on obtient des avancées, que celles-ci se matérialisent dans le langage. Ce fut d'ailleurs le cas dans les siècles passés, comme on va le voir.

It is interesting that translations of three Urdu poets have been taken up by women

Bettale Rasteya Kanasina Deepa, Kaifi Azmi, Translated by Vibha, Ladayi Prakashana,

Bettale Fakeera, Ali Sardar Jafri, Translated by Ja.Na. Tejashri, Abhinava Prakashana

Preethi mattu Kranthi, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Translated by Bageshree S. Lankesh Prakashana

As a cultural phenomenon, translation provides a fascinating window into the inner compulsions and dynamics of the receiving culture. The publication of four volumes of poetry in quick succession, translated to Kannada from Urdu and the fact that all its translators are young women gives rise to some important questions. Modern Kannada poetry, in general is dominated by an attitude, which prevents women from giving full vent to their inner yearnings. The cultural mores adopted by the dominating middle class in South India, denies a cultural space to women of domestic calling. Their creativity gets submerged in a plethora of restrictions. It is to be noted that the poets chosen for translation are at once die-hard progressives and incurable romantics. An element of melody inherent in Persian and Arabic poetry is interwoven into the fabric of their poetry. This unique combination of non-traditional attributes has liberated poets such as Kaifi Azmi, Ali Sardar Jafri and Faiz Ahmed Faiz from the shackles of convention and their poetry treats women as much more than their corporeal realities. These poems are suffused with a combination of ecstasy and anguish that has resulted in poetry of enduring charm.

These translators are serious students of Kannada and English literatures and they have exhibited genuine creative capacities. Vibha who has published an entire volume of Kaifi Azmi’s poems and a small anthology of other Urdu poets was herself a vibrant poet. Ja. Na. Tejashri who has published four collections of her own poetry has created a niche for herself by choosing unexplored regions of experience and by the artistic intensity with which she handles them. She has translated Pablo Neruda also. Bageshree is an author and journalist. All of them have made genuine efforts to negotiate the Urdu originals and have used multiple translations in English. It is not our intension to make a comparative assessment or analysis of these ventures. However, an attempt is made to look at some common features and try to put them in a cultural perspective.

Like it or not, writing is an essential skill and you will be judged (either harshly or favorably) by your ability to communicate well in the written language. This article highlights common grammatical pitfalls to avoid.

Camilia Sobhy, professor of French comparative literature, was appointed on Monday as the new head of Egypt’s National Centre for Translation (NCT) to succeed professor Faisal Younis, who retired in April.
The appointment is Saber Arab's last decision in office as minister of culture before he, along with the whole Egyptian cabinet, resigned on Monday.

Camilia Sobhy, the first woman to head the Supreme Council for Culture (SCC) since it was established in the 1980’s, will become the first woman to head the NCT, too.

Sobhy had been appointed in December 2011 as head of the SCC and resigned on March 2012 for undisclosed "personal reasons." Sources tell Ahram Online that she resigned due to a quarrell between her and an SCC employee.

Minister of Culture Saber Arab resigned yesterday, along with Egypt's entire cabinet, after the president-elect of the country, Mohamed Morsi, was announced on Sunday. As Morsi is currently forming a new cabinet, he is expected to appoint a new culture minister.

Some speculate the new culture minister will be Mohammed Abdel-Mone's El-Sawy, who held the same position for two weeks in March 2011, just after the start of Egypt's revolution.

ARE Canadian women writers ignored by Canadian reviewers? A study by Canadian Women in the Literary ... - Books - Winnipeg Free Press.

As it has grown increasingly difficult to find a steady full-time job with benefits, more men are reaching for a chance at the American dream in female-dominated occupations.

Il y a un terme qui aurait dû disparaître de nos mémoires d'écolier mais qui a retrouvé une seconde vie dans le langage spécialisé des experts en développement : le genre. Il n'y a pas un projet de développement ou de promotion des droits humains qui, pour être crédible et finançable, ne prend en compte la question « genre ». Le « genre » des experts en développement renvoie bien entendu au genre féminin, c'est-à-dire à la femme. Les grammaires indoeuropéennes auxquelles est emprunté ce mot connaissent trois genres : le genre masculin, le genre féminin et le genre neutre. Certaines d'entre elles comme le français, se limitent à deux, le masculin et le féminin.

Here are the sex differences in the brain that are backed by science.

A prevalent understanding, particularly in the 1980s, was that boys and girls are born cognitively the same. It was the way parents and society treated them that made them different.

Since then, a preponderance of research has called this belief into question. The majority of today's psychologists agree that some of the differences exhibited by male and female brains are innate.

"We do socialize our boys and girls differently, but the contribution of biology is not zero," said Diane Halpern, a professor of psychology at Claremont McKenna College in California, who has been studying cognitive gender differences for 25 years. Halpern was a keynote speaker at the British Psychological Society Annual Conference here last Thursday (April 19).

Swedes are shaking up their language with a new gender-neutral pronoun. The pronoun, “hen”, allows speakers to refer to a person without including reference to gender.

Last 7 March, our colleague Dr Olga Castro gave a seminar at The Centre for Galician Studies (Birmingham University) on the political role of translation in the construction of gender and cultural/national identities in the Galician context. She critically intertwined the three fields of inquiry crucial to her study – namely, Translation Studies, Feminist Theory and Galician Studies.
If you are interested in knowing more about her research or you are a potential PhD candidate, don’t hesitate to contact Olga....

Pasos perdidos Entre el lunes y el martes se empezará a cerrar un texto de consenso en los distintos bloques de diputados y diputadas para imponer en el Código Penal la figura del “femicidio”, el neologismo que describe los crímenes machistas, esos...

« Le 20 mars est la journée du lancement officiel de la Quinzaine de la Francophonie. Nous la célébrons en partenariat avec le ministère de la Culture car la Direction de la Francophonie est rattachée à ce département. Pour cette année, la journée de lancement commencera le matin à la Place du Souvenir par une cérémonie officielle. La troupe « Espoir de la banlieue » en assurera l’animation. Il y aura aussi un panel sur le thème « Le Français dans tous ces états » avec comme trois sous-thèmes : « La langue française est-elle sexiste ? », « Le français des Sms » et « Le français dans le rap sénégalais ». C’est une façon pour le Groupe des amis de la Francophonie (Gaf) de s’intéresser au français tel qu’il vit et évolue...
Tout ce travail nécessite un gros investissement de la part des membres du Gaf. Des ambassades ont aussi participé à ces investissements. Les autorités sénégalaises se sont également impliquées pleinement. De même, des structures culturelles vont nous accueillir. Il s’agit de la Maison de la culture Douta Seck, du Centre culturel Blaise Senghor, de Kajinol, de l’Ucad, ainsi que des institutions culturelles françaises au Sénégal.
A chaque célébration de la Quinzaine de la Francophonie, nous voulons faire des activités en dehors de Dakar pour ne pas nous limiter à organiser des activités uniquement dans la capitale. Ainsi, nous organisons des activités à Saint-Louis, Toubab Dialao et Louga. J’espère qu’à l’avenir nous en ferons encore plus en dehors de Dakar. C’est un objectif que nous essayons d’atteindre chaque année, mais ce n’est pas simple.

El «empoderamiento» es el término en boga que define el proceso para alcanzar el liderazgo femenino...

El capítulo 18 del Ulises de Joyce es una de las cumbres de la literatura del siglo XX: un monólogo interior femenino que por primera vez da voz a la liberación femenina, ofrece en directo lo que Freud había teorizado, siembra lo que cosecharía...

The Centre for Galician Studies has organized a research seminar on Translation and Gender for Wednesday 7th March 4pm (Strathcona LT3). Dr Olga Castro (Aston University) who is a specialist in Gender and Translation Studies will be giving a paper entitled "Translation and Minorities: Gender and National Identities at Stake".