I’m wondering, women, what are we doing still carting around a self-identifier that has one-half of the population dependent on the other? Surely we don't invite full respect, nor do we pull up to the tables with matched armchairs, if in every sentence, even in our theme songs, we roar appendaged. You may recall  “I Am Woman,” some of you a’roar yourselves, some then but in diapers, wondering about the commotion.

Though I will continue to hug tight the memory, ever with heart-pumping appreciation for Helen Reddy, that “I am” was woman of the ‘70s. The Oxford English Reference Dictionary relays as neutrally as possible the origins of “woman.” Have you heard this before? “Woman” came from the Old English “wifmon.”² Yes, that would be wife man. The roots easily trace back to the 12th century. That older model -- some of us worried we had back-spaced to by the 1990’s -- might sound quaint, and of course rings historic, but it’s also indisputably archaic don’t you think?

Regarding gender identifiers in languages other than English, I’ll be happy to hear of enlightened choices and/or of epistemological balance! I have used internet and archival avenues, and find no universal proposal such as the one I’m about to make. A quick ride on the worldwide web reveals the first three letters of women already in use around the globe, from Germany to Japan, and in the United States, but as abbreviations for course titles, information access, and products which actually have no association with gender. The time has come.

I want you to know I don’t anticipate immediate, universal acceptance, although I won’t be surprised if the word achieves that over a very short time. I ask merely for thoughtful consideration. In case the word should meet some resistance, I’ve learned well not to be deterred by derision. With Maria Stewart and Elizabeth Cady Stanton at my back:

I propose, henceforth, instead of woman and women, we use wom,

not as politically correct terminology, but as a choice for our gender identifier.

excerpted from Beyond the roar ... wom ©2010, E. Sandy Powell

To view the Contents of Beyond the roar ... wom, available as .pdf, along with wom products,

pop into the Beyond the roar© store, above.

I do believe that eventually the relationship between the words man/wom wom/man, and balance therein, will feel so natural to us, and be such a reflection of our 'just getting on with life, together' that we'll have trouble remembering when the identifiers didn't weigh in so vibrationally matched. Man. Wom. Ahhhhhh.