Fisherperson?

Some years ago, while I was teaching Elizabeth Bishop’s poem “The Fish,” a student stumbled over the proper term for the person who caught the animal. He started out with “fisherm…” and then stopped himself and went with “fisherperson.” Fisherperson? Really? I consider myself a feminist, but even I was taken aback by this word. It was fair, of course, because both men and women go fishing. But it sounded like something a late-night television host would mock. Yet what is the alternative? Fisher? Trout-worker? Marine life catcher? Perhaps letter carrier and firefighter also sounded strange when they first entered the language in place of postman and fireman.

I thought about this issue when I saw this sign on a construction project:

A single-sex project.

A single-sex project.

 

Only men work there? Or are only the male workers dangerous? Neither meaning is likely, so the sign is incorrect. The habit of assuming that a male term is understood to include both men and women – the “masculine universal” – has been out of favor, and for very good reason, for many years. Yet “MEN AND WOMEN WORKING ABOVE” seems artificial. How about “DANGER: CONSTRUCTION ABOVE”? Or, “WATCH OUT! WE’RE WORKING UP HERE!”

Here’s another sign:

No more "busboys"?

No more “busboys”?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, busboy doesn’t work, not least because some of those doing this job are a couple of decades past boyhood (or girlhood). I can’t really support busser, as buss is a slang word for “kiss.” Table cleaner isn’t accurate, nor is plate remover. So, I’m stumped. Any suggestions?

The larger point is that language changes slowly, especially when it’s tied to a social movement, in this case feminism. And yes, gendered language matters. Children asked to draw a scene with cavemen hardly ever include women, while those asked to draw cave people more or less balance the sexes. So we do need these changes if we’re to see possibilities and eventual equality. Along the way, though, we may have to deal with some fisherpeople.

 

 

One thought on “Fisherperson?

  1. Don Yates

    Unhappily, I don’t have a solution to the problems you’ve raised, and while it’s been explained to me, I can never quite retain a description of exactly what the “best boy” on a film crew does, but I suspect the job is always, like “busboy,” filled by someone, male or female, who has attained majority and then some. Another coal to toss on the fire.
    However, I can contribute my reaction to the “masculine universal” sometimes encountered in history/writing, especially of the popular or student variety: my favorite is from an AP Art History exam: “Since the caves, man’s needs and priorities have changed…” Why not, I ask, “>our< needs and priorities"? Who is this strange creature "man" of whom we speak so remotely, to whom we attribute and on whom we project feelings and behaviors that are really our own? The locution really robs this creature of humanity, of "us-ness"; we thereby lose all personal connection to our past (not to mention erasing all the women who must certainly been around at the time). WE found out how to control and use fire. WE invented the wheel. WE figured out that putting seeds in the ground produced food. (Although on this last it has been more or less reasonably argued that it may have been the women, tasked with child-rearing who noticed this phenomen.)

    On a slightly more personal note, I remember once using a handy little book unfortunately called "Man's Rise to Civilaztion." It was a study of about six different Native American cultures that ranged from very primitive to highly sophisticated (they coexisted in pre-Columbian North America). I asked the class if they were bothered by the constant use of the male pronoun. Some of the girls were bothered by it, others said it made no difference to them. Significantly, Joe Samalin said he didn't know what I was talking about, that he hadn't noticed anything of the sort. Knowing Joe, I of course was a little astonished until we realized he was reading a later edition wherein all the pronouns had been neutered! (Joe, by the way, has continued to be extremely active with feminist issues, particularly domestic and other gendered types of violence.)

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