Herstory
I can't recall how I came across herstory
, but it made me laugh anyway. As a politically-correct term for history viewed through a feminist lens, or a demasculinisation of history, it's nonsensical. It seems to be predicated on the notion that history is somehow innately masculine—because it's got his
in it, innit?
Firstly, history
is derived from the Ancient Greek ἱστορία (historia), meaning inquiry or knowledge acquired by investigation. It has nothing to do with the male possessive pronoun, which, for the sake of comparison, is αυτού. So, the presence of his
in history
is purely coincidental.
Secondly, replacing the male possessive pronoun with the female equivalent doesn't yield herstory
, but hertory
. Which makes even less sense.
Not one, but two petty points won on the internet. Yay me! (thumbup)