by Highlander 11 Replies latest jw friends
"We have made it very clear that Israel should be allowed to defend herself," Bush said in Washington. "We've asked that as she does so that she be mindful of the Saniora government. It's very important that this government in Lebanon succeed and survive."
Why does Bush refer to Israel as a she? Does he view Israel as god's spiritual bride? Which I guess would be similar to J-dubs refering to the 144k as the brideclass to Jehovah.
It just seems weird to refer to a country as a she, or a he.
I am glad you brought that up as I was wondering the same thing.
purps
It is a common idiom.
"Winston Churchill declared that England could defend herself with her navy alone, and that she needed no large army. I told Churchill that no great empire could last that did not have both an army and a navy".
http://www.cilicia.com/morgenthau/Morgen17.htm
"Sikorski saw clearly that the real danger in Europe was not radical socialism, but reactionary politics which were weakening Europe, and which made her unable to defend herself against the growing Teutonic doctrine of brute force".
http://bolekchrobry.tripod.com/polishinformationcenter19391945/id24.html
Good examples, Leolaia!
I was thinking the same thing: for some reason many things are feminized, cars, ships, etc.
Blondie
Nationalist Germany referred to itself as der Vaterland. (the fatherland)
I have always wondered how a country's gender is determined. There is Mother Russia while Germany is the Fatherland. The US seems to be gender neutral, except when it comes to the flag, as in long may she wave.
That's funny big. Some German (1st generations JWs) in Upstate NY always called Germany "The MOTHERland."
Speaking of Bush, I like the way his and Blair's conversation was unknowingly recorded today and re-broadcast around the world.
"Yo, Blair!!!" (yes, this was the actual greeting)
"Hezbollah needs to stop this shit."
among other goodies.
Well, we do have "Uncle Sam" that is used as a personification of the United States. So we have mother, father, and .... uncle. I recall that in colonial India, Great Britain was referred to as an "aunt". Other countries also used the motif of Britain as their "great aunt" in the post-colonial era...
It isn't the colorful language that struck me as crude so much as the appalling display (and audio) of piggy lips smacking. I really hope that his mother at least tried to instill common courtesy, and I feel sorry for Laura.
When English was a language that wasn't gender neutral like its mother language (ironic) countries and large, majestic objects had grammatical genders. Countries, boats and large houses were referred to as "she" because back when English had gramatical genders, these itens had feminine nouns. We still have remnants of gramatical gender to this day, hence why countries are referred to as "She" and the moon in our language is usually referred to in poetic terms as "he".
