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Did you know... some surprsing things about girls and women?

13 replies

SweetDreamerGirl · 30/06/2010 00:28

I want to share a few things I have heard recently about women that have surprised me. To the best of my knowledge they are all true. If not, please let me know.

-- In Chinese, the pictogram character representing the word for "woman" is a combination of the pictograms for "female" and "housework".

-- In China, until the early 20th century, many girls did not merit their own names. They were called e.g. "number two girl".

-- The Mongol emperor Ghengis Khan outlawed domestic violence, established women's property rights and had a female senior advisor. However, he also used rape as a weapon of war.

-- Aztec men could buy a rabbit for 10 cacao beans and a woman for 12 cacao beans.

-- There are about ten times more English words for sexually promiscuous females than for sexually promiscuous males.

Have you come across any facts about women that have surprised you recently?

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MrsRhettButler · 30/06/2010 00:31

what did the aztecs do with their rabbits is what i wanna know

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foreverastudent · 30/06/2010 00:42

I read that in Chinese the symbol for 2 women is the same as quarrel and 3 women, gossip.

There are about a third more girls names in use in the UK than boys names.

In some countries (inc Germany I think)unisex names are banned.

Girl babies are more likely to survive if born prematurely.

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SpeedyGonzalez · 30/06/2010 00:45

Rofl at Rhett!

On the one hand, those facts shock me. On the other, sadly, they don't.

Slightly tangenitally (only slightly, as you've mentioned use of language), I've never understood the introduction of the word 'herstory'; since 'history' is derived from the French 'histoire', and has no connection to male or female personal pronouns. Obviously I get the point that it's about incorporating women's history into the general canon of historical records, which is essential, IMO. But as a way of making language less gender-biased it is very awkward and looks a bit foolish.

Or is there something I'm missing?

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SpeedyGonzalez · 30/06/2010 00:46

forever - also, if you have twins of each sex and of the same age and physical health sustaining the same injuries in a car accident, the girl is more likely to survive.

I learned that on my degree course.

And now, almost 20 yrs later, I ask myself: how did they find that out?

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ChunkyPickle · 30/06/2010 00:48

www.kanjiclinic.com/kc36final.htm

That's an interesting article - from it (although the pronunciations are japanese, the origins of the written forms of chinese and japanese are the same):

Typical stages in a woman?s life in ancient China are depicted in kanji, beginning with her birth. In matriarchal ancient China, only women generally used a family name: A 姓 (SEI, surname) was thus bestowed in the event of the birth 生 of a female 女 child. Until marriage, a young woman served in the role of a daughter 娘musume (good 良 female 女) and was perhaps someone?s younger sister 妹 imouto (immature 未 woman 女). When she became a bride 嫁 (yome), a woman 女 went to a new home 家, where she found herself under the thumb of her older, powerful mother-in-law 姑 shuutome (old 古 woman 女). Whoopee! There was little respite from housework. A woman, probably dead tired, can be seen with a broom in two characters representing ?wife?: 妻 (tsuma)and 婦 (FU).

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ChunkyPickle · 30/06/2010 00:48

Bugger. It seems that mumsnet isn't multilingual!

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MrsRhettButler · 30/06/2010 00:56

speedy! i'm seriously gonna need to know how they did find that out so if anyone has the answer............

or do we think they just go on statistics?

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goodasgold · 30/06/2010 00:59

I think that in China it is also common to call the sons 'son no 1' (or ds1).

The thing with the Chinese culture is that girls go to live with their husbands after marriage and tend to take care of their in-laws, and are a bit lost from their own parents. This is why they are seen as less valuable to their parents than a son would be.

Also the word for good 'hao' in Chinese is made up of the pictograms for a woman and a child. Or son actually a woman and a son. This is Mandarin Chinese as I know it, not the expert or anything.

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SweetDreamerGirl · 30/06/2010 01:08

SpeedyGonzalez, in Quebec French, they have invented a politically correct word for "person" by masculinising a formerly feminine word. They have created "le personne" from the original "la personne".

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SweetDreamerGirl · 30/06/2010 12:30

goodasgold wrote, "I think that in China it is also common to call the sons 'son no 1' (or ds1)."

Sorry, I should have been clearer in my original post. The point I was trying to make was that the only name for the girls was "number two girl", whereas boys were/are referred to as "son number 2" and/or a "normal family name" as well.

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BoneyBackJefferson · 30/06/2010 20:21

In china when the boy leaves home and doesn't have a wife or girlfriend it is usual for the mother or daughter to visit to cook, clean etc.

not girl/women exactly but

Fa'afafine is a third gender specific to Samoan culture.

Fa'afafine are biological men who in childhood choose by their nature to be raised to assume female gender roles.

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BertieBotts · 30/06/2010 23:26

I would guess it's on statistics, Rhett. I recently looked up the stats for different causes of death (am writing a story and needed to kill off a character) - and you'd be horrified to know the difference between the numbers of young lads (15-19) and young girls of the same age who die And with the girls it tends to more often be illnesses (and a smaller but still substantial number of car accidents) but boys it's car accidents, suicide and violence

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earwicga · 30/06/2010 23:34

Not sure about the China 'facts' - it is a huge country with some very rural areas and some very urban areas.

If you would like to know more about women's lives in China I highly recommend reading the work of Xue Xinran. Much of it is heartbreaking though.

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