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Original poster

Use of the term 'handmaidens'?

94 replies

JoanWilliams75 · 25/03/2019 11:30

I really hate it. I especially hate it when GC men use it.

Anyone else?

OP posts:
Freespeecher · 25/03/2019 12:16

Does have echoes of 'Uncle Tom' about it which I personally don't like.

I don't like any such phrases that seem to signify that someone who doesn't think xyz isn't therefore a 'real' xxx.

(But I'm neither female nor a feminist so not exactly the target audience on this one)

Amoregentlemanlikemanner · 25/03/2019 12:10

"I think pomo addled doesn't get across that feeling of betrayal at a woman collaborating in the oppression of her own sex"

Agree and that's why I prefer it I think (cat that walks alone here)

Amoregentlemanlikemanner · 25/03/2019 12:10

I agree with the OP but I've had my bottom handed to me on a plate here before for tone-policing and have learnt some lessons

pomo-addled is much less ad-hominem (ad femina?) to my ears. it's saying that someone (who may be quite a decent person) has become confused as a result of a dogma.

handmaiden is the equivalent of bigot to my ears but my ears aren't particularly important or influential so it doesn't really matter.

If you describe someone as being incapable of learning they won't learn.

BernardBlacksWineIcelolly · 25/03/2019 12:07

Renfields?

hipsterfun · 25/03/2019 12:05

I think pomo addled doesn't get across that feeling of betrayal at a woman collaborating in the oppression of her own sex

Or the utter foolishness of working against her own personal interests into the bargain.

LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD · 25/03/2019 12:03

I refer to them as ‘familiars’. Like cats that hang around witches (so they don’t make them into fur gloves).

beagadorsrock · 25/03/2019 12:03

My parents used the word 'kapo' ' = the prisoners of concentration camps who got privileges by becoming guards (and were prosecuted, when found, both at Nuremberg and in Israel). I realise that if I used it now it could be interpreted as anti-semitic/appropriating so I don't anymore.

Iused2BanOptimist · 25/03/2019 12:02

Personally I'm rather fond of the term "surrendered wife of the woke".
If it's good enough for Julie Burchill it's good enough for me and perfectly sums up my view of a certain wife who is proud to be a lesbian now that her husband and father of her children declares himself to be a woman.

If we are talking about insults then I think a man announcing he is a woman is pretty insulting.

Floisme · 25/03/2019 12:02

Soz - Errol beat me to it.

Floisme · 25/03/2019 12:01

I prefer collaborator.

ErrolTheDragon · 25/03/2019 12:01

It comes across to me as either twee, or misleading - 'handmaidens' a la Atwood being enslaved fertile women.

'Anti-women's rights collaborators' maybe?

FeministCat · 25/03/2019 11:59

Well the definition of a handmaid includes a subservient partner or element. I am aware it also has meanings as a slave and so on, but I do think that those who are happily supporting and enabling the trampling of rights of girls and women to “support” trans rights above all else are certainly a servient element.

BernardBlacksWineIcelolly · 25/03/2019 11:56

I think pomo addled doesn't get across that feeling of betrayal at a woman collaborating in the oppression of her own sex

LangCleg · 25/03/2019 11:47

I prefer pomo-addled as it's unisex!

BernardBlacksWineIcelolly · 25/03/2019 11:45

I'm not tone policing lol. i'm saying i don't like it

OK

why not?

Original poster
JoanWilliams75 · 25/03/2019 11:44

I'm not tone policing lol. i'm saying i don't like it.

OP posts:
BernardBlacksWineIcelolly · 25/03/2019 11:38

I don’t generally use it, but I also don’t generally tone police others either

yeah this.

I did use it the other day to describe Gaby Hinsliffe. First time I've used it I think. It really fits her nicely

BettyDuMonde · 25/03/2019 11:37

I don’t generally use it, but I also don’t generally tone police others either.

S1naidSucks · 25/03/2019 11:33

It’s a lot better than what GC women are called and at least it doesn’t come with any death threats.