Cardinal men and scarlet women
Subtitle: a colorful etymology of words that discriminate
By: by Jan Keessen ; illustrations by Bill Hannan.
Contributors: Hannan, Bill, 1938-
Publisher: Marquette University Press; Marquette Univ Pr
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Milwaukee, Wisc
Language: eng
Number of pages: 200
ISBN-13: 9780874620221
Subjects: English language -- Terms and phrases; Discrimination -- United States -- Terminology; English language -- Etymology
Genres: Terminology
Description: "Words such as cardinal and scarlet can describe the same color but they take on markedly different meanings when we use them to consider the worth of a cardinal man or a scarlet woman. The comparison seems to conjure significantly more prejudice when we consider that a cardinal man is revered as righteous while a scarlet woman is reviled as wicked, particularly in terms of her sexual activity. In a similar way, by contrasting other pairs of words, we can see how they too invite discriminatory connotations in terms of what we value: Christian and pagan, crusade and jihad, highbrow and lowbrow, wizard and witch, right and left, white and black. Keessen presents this playful yet scholarly study by way of a series of informal essays, arranged by chapter and topic, and in a storytellers lexicon tells us how certain notions developed."--Amazon.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.