The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1867-01-11

1t has recently been decided by a French
court that to call woman ''female'' is to
offer her an insult, which renders the person
guilty of the outrage liable to prosecution and
punishment under the law. We are hearth
ly glad to hear it, and we wish 1t might be
made an indictable offence in this country as
well. 1t is the most offensive and the most
essentially vulgar form of expression which
has any countenance among decent people,
and stamps the person using it with the un-
mistakable mark of the second-rate in breed
ing and culture. It is true, we do OCCASION
ally hear it dropping carelessly from tue lips
of men who have claim to be considered
gentlemen, but with such it is one of the per-
nicious effects of bad example, and they must
surely blush for the atroeity the moment they
become aware that they have uttered it.
If any one wishes to satisfy himself cf the
real absurdity as well as the vulgarity of the
usage, let him apply the complimentary word
'male" in similar manner to men. For in
stance: ga carriage containing two males
was coming down the street"-"An elderly
male happened to be passing2-"Three or
or four young males were in the room !"--We
neel not 60 on. Anybody who should apply
such an epithet to a man, to his face, would
probably be knocked down for his pains; and
serve him right, too. Why not call a woman
a woman, and have done with this silly nom
| sense forever? 10 lira
We have been moved to these remarks by
an article on the same topic which recently
appeared in the Pail Mall Gazette, and as it
expresses the truth of the matter rather point
edly, we append am extract or two:
There are, indeed, few more trustworthy
| tests OF sound cultivation, and Of good style
in talk and in writing, than in the manner in
| which women are described. Let anybody
run over in his mind the various turns OF
! phrase which are now prevalent, and he will
feel at once that it is by no means an easy
thing tor the uncultured author to steer clear
OF something very like vulgarity in the choice
| Of them. ",Ahe sex" "the tair SEX" ''the gen.
tier sex" the female SEX" "iemales," "ladies y
.'the ladies'" women ''womar," ;" mans
good lady," his "better half,"-here is rich
variety OF words of which it is no exaggera-
| tion to say that almost each of them may be
employed in such manner as to suggest that
the person who thus employs it is not gen
! gether and on all occasions gent, he is by no
means free from such an amount OF the gent
| lsh element as will be certain to break out
now and then in its unmistabable ugliness.
Of the various words which are made to do
| duty tor the simple word women" they are
the delight of everybody who wishes to talk
| line, and to appear what he or she considers
to be "genteei.' Where wel-bred men and
women would speak of their companions as
men and women" the gentish mind prefers
to speak OF gentlemen and ladies'" These
words are otter, too, the delight OF that par
ticularly odious sort OF men who look down
upon women as II kind of inferior animal. to
| be fattered to their faces as smpletons una
BILE to enter into rational conversation, and to
be classed together in an indiscriminate lump
! as "the sex" or "the female sex" born to play
part antagonistic to that of the worthier
race who are detestably described as their
lords" As to the one word the correlative
| of which is now branded as forbidden in
France, it is the very type and representative
| OF the whole class, and may be taken as
| expressing the spirit of gentishness itself.
| The gent divides the human race, with the ex-
ception of the artisan and laboring class, in
to two sections, gents and females. And it
seems not at all unlikely that, as 1t would be
unquestionably an atfronting and insulting
thing to tell one who is really a gentleman
that he Is only gent, so the more refined
sensibilities OF French judge may have de-
tected in the term ''female" something as
atfronting to the selfrespect of all women
simply as women, as is the imputation of gent
ishness to an Englishman, Simply as man.