Mother Tongue: A History of Women's Words

I'd abandoned two books in a row.  I thought that a feminist book would keep me engaged. So I picked up Mother Tongue: A History of Women's Words.  I have a B.A. in history.  I find anything on historical subjects fascinating.  I purchased Mother Tongue at a local independent bookstore which isn't something I do very often.

                                

Nuttall came to the realization that for the most part she was finding words that men used about women.  Most of the words that women used weren't recorded. Yet sometimes she found words of women who were the first to write on particular subjects.

Words for parts of women's bodies were troublesome in various periods. A new edition of Chaucer for Georgians dealt with anatomical vocabulary that was unmentionable in the 18th century.  Taboos on that topic got even stronger among the Victorians.  Chaucer must have been severely bowdlerized during the 19th century. 

Probably the most taboo word related to women's sexuality is "clitoris".   The word clitoris is ancient, and Nuttall believes that its function was understood in ancient times. The Wikipedia article devoted to artist Sophia Wallace  revealed that she created "the first anatomically correct sculpture of the clitoris" in 2013. 

In the 14th century Parliament was debating a Buggery Act.  The idea of adding "gross indecency" between women was brought up, but the House of Lords thought it was a bad idea.  They were sure that most women didn't know how women had sex. The Lord Chancellor thought that only one woman in a thousand had even heard of women having sex with each other.  The House of Lords  also thought that an indecency law that included lesbianism would lead to women being blackmailed or falsely accused.

I  learned from Mother Tongue that "slut" originally meant low status servant, and didn't have any sexual connotation.  

Nuttall also wants us to know that "miscarriage of justice" was the first recorded use of the word "miscarriage".  Pregnancy loss was usually referred to as a mischance or misfortune.  I suspect that this is the way a man would refer to it.   A woman who has lost a wanted  child wouldn't consider it a mere "mischance" or "misfortune".  For her it's a tragedy.

In the 17th century a miscarriage was called "an abortive birth".  The implication is that it was accidental.  An intentional ending of a pregnancy was called "an induced miscarriage"  or "a procured miscarriage".  I would think that "procured" implies that someone other than the pregnant woman had provided the means for ending the pregnancy. 

We are told in Mother Tongue that injuring or poisoning a pregnant woman in order to cause a miscarriage was considered a felonious assault.  Usually it was the injured woman who brought the case to court.  Yet between the 14th and 16th centuries such charges were no longer prosecuted because a fetus didn't have legal personhood.  This is an argument that is currently used by advocates for the legality of  consensual abortion. 

Nuttall cites "Edward Cooke" as saying that once a child has quickened, which means that the baby has moved, abortion is a criminal offense.  Since this is a legal pronouncement, I suspect she probably means the 17th century English jurist, Sir Edward Coke.  I am providing the link to his Wikipedia article.  It seems to me that  current anti-abortion advocates insist that abortion should be illegal from  conception.  I expect that Sir Edward Coke would have regarded that as an extreme position. Later in the 19th century, this issue was viewed quite differently.  By 1837 abortion was regarded as criminal in any stage of pregnancy. 

Nuttall doesn't like the use of "delivery" to describe a birth.  She says that this implies that the baby is a takeout order.  I should point out that takeout orders go back to the 1920's, but the use of delivery to describe a birth started in the 1570's according to The Online Etymology Dictionary.

I learned from Nuttall that "husbandry" meant the skills needed to run a household.  By that definition, the husband was usually the wife.   In fact, she thinks that John Fitzherbert was mansplaining when he published A Boke of Husbandrie  for rural housewives in 1523.  I'm pretty sure that mansplaining was regarded as standard behavior then.

 Nuttall cites a study of woman witnesses in court trials by Alexandra Shepard.  Shepard analyzed over 3000 witness statements between 1550-1728.  They had to establish that they were credible by showing that they were worthy of credit by describing their assets and how they earned a living.  Shepard discovered that 2/3 of the married women in her study were creditworthy. 

Nuttall tells us that there was once an idea that pregnancy due to rape meant that a woman had really consented.  In other words, there was a widespread belief that there was no such thing as a non-consensual pregnancy.  That's truly bizarre from a modern perspective, but the science dealing with women's biological cycles hadn't been established yet.  People didn't really know how women got pregnant. 

I included everything that most interested me about Mother Tongue in this review.  I consider this book worthy of an A- grade.  The minus is for content that I considered tedious or repetitive.