I find it obscene that a word needs to have a definition this long. Why can’t we continue using “homocide?” Why does a woman that was killed for being a woman need a special word for it?
I mean, welcome to the world. Sometimes concepts are complicated and require more than a simple dictionary-style definition to fully understand. Otherwise there’d be no use for classes and textbooks and you could learn everything you need to know from a dictionary.
And I did provide some pretty short definitions right at the beginning, the rest is examples and me sort of musing on the terms for further clarification for those who need/want it.
Elsewhere in the comments I think you used the term “misogynist homicide.” If for some reason that term sits better with you, by all means use it, I’d say they’re synonymous, and all of my explanation applies just as much to that term. Language evolves and new words are coined every day, if we can come up with a neat one-word name for something as opposed to clunky 2+ word phrases I’m generally a fan of that.
Also, I think a critical reading of my comment might show you that I also have some misgivings about how we use the term, because like I repeatedly said, it can be damn hard to properly sort out the killers motivations. I think some people are too fast to slap the label on any instance where a woman is killed, especially by a man, and while it’s probably likely that the label is appropriate in the majority of those cases, I don’t think it’s necessarily a useful term to use unless you can clearly explain the misogynistic motivations behind it.
I guess it’s just me but I feel like “misogynist homicide” is more clear than femicide. That massive paragraph breaking it down between domestic violence and something specifically called “femicide” is completely unnecessary. As I write this on a computer and keyboard at this point, I’m realizing it wants to spell check “femicide” because it’s also not in the spell-check dictionary.
We aren’t the ones who needed a multi-paragraph explanation to differentiate between domestic abuse and femicide; the difference between the two is rather large and made rather obvious by one of the words being gendered while the other is not
It’s a legal term, and when you’re talking about taking away a person’s freedom (or possibly their life), you need these words to have very very specific definitions.
You don’t need a multi-paragraph explanation. Femicide is the murder of a woman by a man, and domestic abuse is violence against a domestic partner or family member.
One situation can apply to both terms, but neither implies the other.
Sounds like the perfect reason to have different words. Who would want to type that out every time? I’m sure someone could spend several paragraphs describing the difference between fur and hair, or stucco vs plaster.
If you don’t care about the difference between two words, then those words probably weren’t invented for you. Someone else who works with that nuance on a daily basis probably really likes that they can sum things up briefly.
I find it obscene that a word needs to have a definition this long. Why can’t we continue using “homocide?” Why does a woman that was killed for being a woman need a special word for it?
Because creating words for specific ideas is central to language
I mean, welcome to the world. Sometimes concepts are complicated and require more than a simple dictionary-style definition to fully understand. Otherwise there’d be no use for classes and textbooks and you could learn everything you need to know from a dictionary.
And I did provide some pretty short definitions right at the beginning, the rest is examples and me sort of musing on the terms for further clarification for those who need/want it.
Elsewhere in the comments I think you used the term “misogynist homicide.” If for some reason that term sits better with you, by all means use it, I’d say they’re synonymous, and all of my explanation applies just as much to that term. Language evolves and new words are coined every day, if we can come up with a neat one-word name for something as opposed to clunky 2+ word phrases I’m generally a fan of that.
Also, I think a critical reading of my comment might show you that I also have some misgivings about how we use the term, because like I repeatedly said, it can be damn hard to properly sort out the killers motivations. I think some people are too fast to slap the label on any instance where a woman is killed, especially by a man, and while it’s probably likely that the label is appropriate in the majority of those cases, I don’t think it’s necessarily a useful term to use unless you can clearly explain the misogynistic motivations behind it.
Ever hear the word “misogyny”?
Because some murders aren’t just about the victim - they intimidate others in the same “class”. It’s a type of terrorism.
In the US we have a modifier of “hate crime” that serves a similar purpose.
I guess it’s just me but I feel like “misogynist homicide” is more clear than femicide. That massive paragraph breaking it down between domestic violence and something specifically called “femicide” is completely unnecessary. As I write this on a computer and keyboard at this point, I’m realizing it wants to spell check “femicide” because it’s also not in the spell-check dictionary.
I’m going to re-affirm, this is dumb.
Everything else has a special word for it, why not this?
Everything doesn’t have a special word, that’s my point.
It’s how language works. We make words that are descriptive so that we don’t need to explain everything at length every time.
When you need a multi-paragraph explanation as to differentiate femicide from domestic abuse; your point invalidates.
We aren’t the ones who needed a multi-paragraph explanation to differentiate between domestic abuse and femicide; the difference between the two is rather large and made rather obvious by one of the words being gendered while the other is not
It’s a legal term, and when you’re talking about taking away a person’s freedom (or possibly their life), you need these words to have very very specific definitions.
You don’t need a multi-paragraph explanation. Femicide is the murder of a woman by a man, and domestic abuse is violence against a domestic partner or family member.
One situation can apply to both terms, but neither implies the other.
Sounds like the perfect reason to have different words. Who would want to type that out every time? I’m sure someone could spend several paragraphs describing the difference between fur and hair, or stucco vs plaster.
If you don’t care about the difference between two words, then those words probably weren’t invented for you. Someone else who works with that nuance on a daily basis probably really likes that they can sum things up briefly.