I am stealing Sarah Palin's book title for today's blog. Going Rogue. I love that word. Rogue. Who uses that anymore? I remember, believe it or not, when I first heard the word. I was in my 20s. My mom was talking about a rogue bear in the context of a bear boldly encroaching on their property in Montana and not responding to human threats. In the 30 years since I don't really recall hearing the word outside the context of a wild animal. Still it's one of those words that for one reason or another, you just like. Until now of course. I fear that Gov. Palin has stolen the word and forever it will be associated with her. I feel as though I am losing a perfectly good and favored word.
This sudden aversion to the word rogue is not unlike ruling out certain names for your children because they remind you -usually in a not good way - of someone you know. Have you noticed the same rule doesn't seem to apply to naming your child after a city, such as Dallas or Austin. We have a dog named Tex and my granddaughter is named Addison. I don't really know much about Addison, the city that is, other than it seem to draw great comedy entertainers. My granddaughter is funny too.
Anyway, rogue is not the first word I've lost either. Through the years, other words have gone down mostly by their overuse: the F word. Not the four-letter one, the 8-letter one, feminist. Same with liberal. Those words have been made to trick people into conjuring up images of the devil. I am not the devil, but I am a feminist and a liberal. Today progressive has replaced liberal. The word feminist continues to be something of a badge of dishonor. Maybe also an antique, past its prime and usefulness in today's utopian like society where all are equal and treated alike. It's fine that women still are not paid as much as men or that in sports programs, women still get football leftovers at the high school and college levels. Who cares that our shelters for women escaping domestic violence are full and often women are left to find other resources... but I digress.
Another set of words in recent years have lost their luster for me. They include family, mother, father, grandmother, grandfather. I think the word family has been coopted for political propaganda. Especially when used in concert with the word values. Family values. What are family values? What is a family? Family is relative - pun intended. It's different for all, right? Can be blood that connects us, but not always. But that's not what politicans are going for when they drop the word family in a speech. I have heard way too many stories in my line of business about evil mothers and fathers and grandmothers and grandfathers and uncles and aunts and cousins, etc. My brain does not automatically go to a happy place when I hear those words, titles really, as though these people are royalty. I don't think that way anymore. Consider this: we sort of go "awww" when we hear stories of grandmothers or grandparents raising their grandchildren. Wonderful. Good for them. But aren't these people the ones who sadly got it wrong the first time? Not always, of course.
So now I have to find a replacement for rogue. Think about it. Whey does Palin claim that word? Really, it's not a very nice description. Look it up. I just did. It means "an unprincipled, deceitful, and unreliable person, a scoundrel or rascal." according to TheFreeDictionary.com. Hmmm. Maybe I can continue my fond attachment to the word. Afterall, if the rogue fits...
2 comments:
I always liked that word too-- and I also liked the X-Men comics character named Rogue. I'm resisting my brain's attempts to make an association between the two.
It's funny that the real definition of the word isn't very honorable... you'd think that if you were going to align your brand with a single word, you'd be sure to look up the official definition first. It seems that the far right counts on people not thinking about these things very deeply. It's all about the gut.
Mary,
As we watched the feminist movement - really we had a front row seat- I thought the next generation of women would have all the answers and none of the problems of previous generations of women. Does one have to be part of a movement in a certain time in history to understand it? Like I once told my students to explain how their history lesson was important- that when they grew up and had kids that their children would listen to 9-11 stories and roll thier eyes and say "do we have to hear about the twin towers again?" So the women of the 70's have husbands who have gone to great effort to participate in an equal society, yet our daughters have friends who think they need a man to be happy. Teacher friends have female students who let their boyfriends beat them up or tell them how to act. As a feminist, also with a husband who always said he would never let his daughters be second class citizens, I know the feminist movement advanced us all- how come not as much as we hoped? - do young women know what came before them (and us) or does each generation do the best they can and progress is supposed to inch forward? I guess I am just confused how we finally got a viable (supposedly) woman candidate and she was the epitomy of what a lot of men would have chosen. Ok, I am done for now - Long live Gloria Steinem!
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