The power of words: I

Words are picked, consciously or not, to have a particular effect upon the reader. There is a weight of meaning behind a word, which is called up in the reader’s mind when s/he comes across it. I have argued before that words are used as weapons, and that to regard them as ‘harmless’ is to ignore the damage they can do, particularly to marginalised people. Likewise, certain ‘heavy’ words and phrases are used to discredit feminist arguments, with the intention that the history and unpleasantness they imply dissuade the reader from hearing what feminists have to say.  Just use the words, regardless of their suitability, and people shudder. I’m hoping that this will be a series (mostly because I don’t have the energy to write about all the words I’m thinking of right now), so here’s the first phrase I will consider, brought to you by, like all the others, the letters B and S.

Brainwashing
Radical feminists are frequently accused of regarding women as ‘brainwashed’. The phrase implies a lack of conciousness, suggesting that one’s mind has been thoroughly cleaned of information, becoming a blank canvas on which the powerful can project their own chosen images. As well as this, ‘brainwashed’ is seen as an insult towards the one with the cleaned brain- that person is stupid and incapable of thinking for themself. Radical feminists have never this said about women.

What radical feminists have said, however, is that women are subject to psychological pressures that men either do not experience, or that they experience to a lesser degree. The messages demanding that women be ‘attractive’ in appearance, that they should cover their faces with artificial colouring because they are not acceptable as they are, that they should teeter on stilts, wear clothing that apologises for their physical ‘flaws’, be polite and caring despite the provocation, are evidently all around us, and it hardly counts as being ‘brainwashed’ to be affected by such messages.

Any suggestion that women might act differently if they lived without such pressures is terrifying to patriarchal thinkers, as it implies that there is a place and time where patriarchy could be absent, could not exist. So it is far easier for those wounded by such a suggestion to accuse radical feminists of regarding women as blank canvases. It won’t occur to them that the very fact radfems bring up the issues of beauty rituals and inner patriarchs proves they don’t regard women as being ‘brainwashed’ – if they thought that way of women, why would they bother discussing it? Brainwashed people are a lost cause.

If W suggests that X regards Y as brainwashed, W is demanding that Y stop listening to X, insinuating that W, and only W, has Y’s interests at heart. W is also suggesting that if Y were to take notice of X, it would be an admission of weakness on Y’s part. And W is seldom asked to prove that what s/he says about X’s intentions is true.