Recently I launched an Internet search to do some initial work on a piece I was writing on women in the media. Following a hunch, I proceeded to search for anything having to do with women, from podiatry for women to female cartographers, and discovered that words that evoke anything female are virtually synonymous with sexual imagery. This isn't a call for Web censorship. In fact, because it's grown too fast and wild to be tacked down by traditional smut-squelching laws, this massive forum is probably the purest expression of current societal values you can find. No, the point I wish to make here is that language carries a lot of cultural weight.
Words are powerful.
Much has been made in feminist rhetoric of what have been called sexist metaphors and terms, and though this push for linguistic change is indicative of a positive cultural shift taking place, it misses the mark. Such a motion for language reform is indicative of positive changes on the horizon, but the movement is in many ways artificial and is destined to get us no further than where we stand today. But there is a very relevant linguistic perspective on women's issues. Etymology offers insight to the development of our language and, in many cases, our culture. Looking at how word meanings have been shaped unintentionally by the speakers who use them is far more edifying than tinkering with a pronoun here, a Ms. there.