blacksundae

Language Log:

A student in my Shakespeare class announced that the word “moist” (which I had uttered to describe Egypt in Antony & Cleopatra) is offensive to women. Some of the other women in the class concurred (not hostilely–just as a matter of information for a clueless male professor). I was somewhat flabbergasted, and nobody would articulate a reason for the offensiveness–except for one male student’s eventual suggestion that the word reminds women of sexual arousal. That association is not at all beside-the-point of my description of Egypt in the play–but why would such a connotation make the word offensive per se? As far as I could ascertain, “damp” and “wet” don’t carry whatever stigma attaches to “moist.” What am I missing here?!

I don’t know what to be more disturbed by: a completely legitimate word being thrown into the “offensive” ghetto, or women being offended by female arousal. Read on.