X-VMS-To: IN%"POLITICS%OHSTVMA.BITNET@PSUVM.PSU.EDU"
X-VMS-Cc: JULIE
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.politics
Date:         Wed, 11 Nov 1992 13:07:00 EST
From:         Song Weaver <JULIE@DRYCAS.CLUB.CC.CMU.EDU>
Subject:      Days of the Week
Comments: To: POLITICS%OHSTVMA.BITNET@PSUVM.PSU.EDU

Okay, since someone asked:

The English days of the week are, I believe, derived from what we commonly
refer to nowadays as "Mythology."  From what I _recall_, the names are
derived as follows:

Sunday: Named for the Sun
Monday: Named for the Moon
Tuesday: I forget this one
Wednesday: Named for Odin, King of the Norse Gods, who was also
           known as "Wodin."
Thursday:  Named for Thor, the Norse God of Thunder
Friday:    I _think_ this is Wodin's wife's day, but I forget her full name.
Saturday:  Named for Saturn (?)

This is from memory of stuff I heard in fifth grade.  If anyone has more
up to date information, I will take that over my own :-).

Anyway, I _guess_ someone suggested that it would be "Politicall Correct"
(ugh) to change the names of the days of the week because some people
are referring to the "Common Era" instead of using "AD" and "BC" for our
date system.

Personally, I don't _CARE_ what other people call the days of the week
so long as I can understand them, and I don't care what other people call
the centuries, so long as I can understand that.  I kind like the sound
of the "Common Era" so I may start using it, because I have trouble sayin
"in the year of our lord" when I am speaking about this "Lord" who does
not really exist to me.  So it seems kinda silly for me to refer to "our
Lord" when I do not have a "Lord."  If other people want to refer to the
year of THEIR Lord, I have no complaint with that.

I think a lot of people are mistaking an effort for accuracy for what has
come to be called "Political Correctness."  Our language is constantly
changing and some of us have decided to attempt to exert influence on how
that language changes.  Examples include efforts of some to decrease the
incidence of uninclusiveness through avoiding terms which exclude people
based on gender, sexual orientation, race, etc.  I -try- to be precise
in my language, so I avoid saying "men" when I mean "people of any gen-
der."  I even avoid saying "men and women" because I think there are
people who are neither, but that is another, much more complicated,
Issue ;-).

So what happens is that when I ask someone if they only mean "men"
when they refer to "men" they accuse me of this "political correctness"
thing when I really just want to know what they MEAN.  it's like you
are not _allowed_ to investigate language, because in some way it
threatens people to do so.  Of course, our language is part of our
power base, so when you challenge the language and its use you basically
attack a power structure, which is why there is this backlash against
this thing that people have come to call "Political Correctness."

But I think the theory that there is this "plot" to eliminate white
males from all litereature is silly.  Most people I know of who are
what some would call "politcally correct" have no interest in eliminating
the works of Plato, Shakespeare, Beethoven, Copernicus, Faulkner, etc.
from Literature.  Instead they want to AUGMENT it with such authors as
Alice Walker, Chiam Potok, Niki Giovanni and Rita Mae Brown.

But when white males have been virtually ALL of the literature read by
University students for over a century, this is a challenge to that, so
rather than responding in an open manner, there is this "old guard" of
academia who have fought this inclusion tooth and nail because to them
it is a THREAT.

I guess I got off of the "Days of the Week" track... Basically, the issue
I did want to address, is that I don't feel that Thursday is the Day of
Thor, but I don't mind paying Thor some lip service since he seemed like
a cool dude.  That's no real problem for me, since Thor has no power
base as far as I am concerned.  Saying "In The Year of Our Lord" enforces
Christianity, and I do find that to be a concern, since Christianity
as an ORGANIZATION (not really so much as a religion) holds too much
power in this Country and I don't want to give them more.  I will note
that someone might jump on me for reffering to Christianity as ONE
organization.  Well that would be fair, since it's not.  I am typing
in line mode otherwise I would have rephrased that sentence.  So I
don't mean to say that, ok?

:-)

-Julie