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Newsgroups: soc.women,alt.usage.english,alt.folklore.urban
From: misrael@csi.uottawa.ca (Mark Israel)
Subject: "ovulars"
Date: Wed, 26 Jan 94 04:00:10 GMT

In article <1994Jan25.190549.6969@guvax>, keithk@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu (Kevin T. Keith) writes: > In article <CK5oLx.ILy@twisto.eng.hou.compaq.com>, tedk@gamera.eng.hou.compaq.com (Ted Krueger) writes:
>> IMO the best one is "seminar." Feminists claim that it is sexist and name
>> theirs "ovulars."
>
> False. I challenge you to find one authenticable example of the
> substitution of "ovular" for "seminar" as the name of a feminist
> meeting or class, or in any other published source.

I can't meet your challenge, but here are a few leads.

From _The Politically Correct Phrasebook_ by Nigel Rees (Bloomsbury, 1993):

# [seminar]: The _New York Review of Books_ reported that a US # professor refused to lead seminars and held 'ovulars' instead. # (Quoted by Flora Lewis, _The International Herald Tribune_, # 12 July 1991.)

From _The Official Politically Correct Dictionary and Handbook_ by Henry Beard and Cristopher Cerf (Villard, 1993):

# ~ovular~ A nonphallogeneric term for "seminar," recommended # for use especially when women are amongst the attendees # [footnote: Unnamed professor at Washington University, St. # Louis, cited by Christina Hoff Summers of the Clark # University Department of Philosophy in an unpublished # manuscript, quoted in D'Souza, Dinesh, _Illiberal Education_, # Free Press, 1991.] See also: ovarium. #
# ~ovarium~ A term, popularized at the University of California # at Santa Cruz, for any seminar where women are present. # [footnote: Cited by American Hyphen Society consultant Juliet # Mohit.]

From _The Bias-Free Word Finder_ by Rosalie Maggio (Beacon, 1992):

# ~seminal~ [...] Alternatives are given because "seminal" is # the adjective form of "semen," and nothing could be more male. # Using the word underscores the notion that only men have # important, "seminal" ideas.