The gender of punctuation
The subject line here is serious. From this article, discussing the semi-colon and whether its 'girly'.
It seemed like an interesting topic for discussion. (Grey- feel free to steal this for changing_gears if you like, or I'll try and save it for when I've worked up the nerve to join.)
Thoughts? Would the writing style be more inherently feminine or masculine, or is there any gender actually attached to punctuation? Would it be statistical? Could punctuation be gay?
I'm not sure how I feel about the subject. Punctuation is a tool after all. A pen is a pen if its pink or blue or polka-dotted...
My favorite quote has to be this one though:
Clearly, men find the em dash a reassuring phallic symbol, while the semicolon reawakens their Freudian castration anxiety. What better way to cope with penis envy than to make frequent use of the semicolon?
It seemed like an interesting topic for discussion. (Grey- feel free to steal this for changing_gears if you like, or I'll try and save it for when I've worked up the nerve to join.)
Thoughts? Would the writing style be more inherently feminine or masculine, or is there any gender actually attached to punctuation? Would it be statistical? Could punctuation be gay?
I'm not sure how I feel about the subject. Punctuation is a tool after all. A pen is a pen if its pink or blue or polka-dotted...
My favorite quote has to be this one though:
Clearly, men find the em dash a reassuring phallic symbol, while the semicolon reawakens their Freudian castration anxiety. What better way to cope with penis envy than to make frequent use of the semicolon?