Question 3

An interesting concept in this reading was the specific area discussing particular terms that have been coined out of specific situations. Some examples of this in the text were date rape, marital rape, domestic partnership, and trans being short for transgender. I always looked at the term date rape, and marital rape in a negative way because I felt that the word rape should be used alone in any situation involving rape. In our text there was an important part that stood out to me where Wood was discussing the terms sexual harassment and marital rape as "activities previously perceived as acceptable". This is where I realized that terms such as date rape are the evolution of the words that we use to communicate relay meaning. Marital rape, and date rape may be used when trying to explain it to someone who may assume that a person can't be raped who is married or on a date with someone. The term domestic partnership was also mentioned in our text, and this applies to me personally. I have been with my girlfriend for five years now, and I rarely use the term "marriage" when referring to our life because I know that I can't actually marry her legally the way I would like to. Wood explains that language is a "tool that social movements use to change cultural life and meanings". We see this around as new terms evolve out of previous terms, and one becomes less appropriate or in the case of young people less cool. If our language and culture do reflect each other as read, then new terms will continue to arise out of change to society.