LOL – GWL’s Secret Code

The Suffragettes sometimes used coded messages on their postcards, so why shouldn’t GWL have its own secret code? In fact, at the moment this one’s so secret – LOL – that only I know it. But keep following this blog. The secret will be revealed on… drumroll please… Saturday 9th February.   Why Saturday 9th February? Well, that’s National Libraries Day, of course.

And this week, in celebration of that fact, I’m going to try to post a blog EVERY SINGLE DAY. Because I LOVE libraries and have done since I was tiny and my mother used to send me off for hours at a time to the local public library.

But sometimes, even though I’m a writer, words can confuse me. This happened last week at the Wild Women Writing group. The talented Nicola Burkhill had written a lovely, sensitive  piece about a woman recovering from cancer surgery well, for want of a better way to put it – down there. And even though there were twelve women in the group, all educated, all intelligent, we couldn’t agree on what the correct, socially acceptable word was for where this woman had had her operation. Talk about secret codes! We were left wondering why, in the 21st century, we still don’t have a word we can all agree on to describe a part of our body that’s very important to us. What’s worse, there was a doctor amongst us, and we still couldn’t reach a consensus.

But this is where Glasgow Women’s Library comes to the rescue. GWL has amazing books on every subject to do with women, including one of my own personal favourites, WOMANWORDS by Jane Mills. The publisher describes it as ‘a completely new kind of dictionary’. In this book some 300 woman-related key words have been selected and their origins traced to reveal how, over time, meanings have been altered, redefined, influenced and, yes, confused.

In fact, so fascinating is this book that when my brother-in-law visited recently from Dublin, he totally lit on it, and kept saying Jeezus, I never knew that! (He’s a bachelor and was educated in a single sex school by the Christian Brothers, poor fellow.) I had to make sure he hadn’t smuggled out the GWL copy when he left.  I like to feel he went back to Ireland an enlightened man – and all thanks to GWL! So what are you waiting for? Pop into the library any day this week and browse our shelves. And if you’d like some advice on what to read, why not visit on Wednesday between 1 and 4 for our Browsing Hour (3 for the price of 1), when Wendy, our librarian will be on hand, along with myself, to help you explore the collection. Of course, it would be handy if you knew the secret code – LOL . Guessed it yet?

Magi

PS – Listen to this from the inimitable Jackie Kay – Maw Broon’s Vagina Monologue! 

Recommended Books: Womanwords by Jane Mills Shelf Code F2.6 MIL

Jackie Kay – Red Dust Road; Trumpet; Other Lovers
Other links: www.wildwomenwriting.co.uk & nicolaburkhill.wordpress.co
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