My name is Debbie Cameron: I’m an academic by trade, and I’ve written a few academic books on subjects related to this blog, as well as one more popular book, The Myth of Mars and Venus. I’ve also written a short introduction to feminism which is currently available in English, Spanish and Greek. If you’re interested you can find some of my contributions to other media on this blog’s ‘Related’ page; and you can follow me on Twitter @wordspinster.
Comments are open on this page (see below for why I closed them elsewhere), but I will only publish or respond to general comments/questions about the blog itself. If you want to communicate with me about something else, it’s better to do it via email or on Twitter (if you ask I’ll follow you so you can DM me).
language: a feminist guide 
I love your thoughtful, incisive, intelligent posts, and it heartens me to see many, MANY others do too! A blog with brains that encourages its readers to use theirs, which is also funny and interesting to read? … A rare and precious thing!
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[…] the untimely death of brilliant architect, Zaha Hadid, Debbie Cameron ponders on the role of gendered language in remember her achievements (as “woman/female […]
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Debbie, I’ve just come across your blog, and it’s a *delight* to read. Fascinating, highly readable, thoughtful discussion. Thanks so much. I’m re-tweeting various pieces.
Regards,
Michael Flood
e: m.flood@qut.edu.au
tw: @MichaelGLFlood
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[…] culture to one where women are respected as equals. One more quote from the linked blog by “Debuk” sums it up […]
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Hi Debbie. Enjoyed reading your blog – came across it when looking for the ancient etymology of the word spouse, and google pointed me at your ‘wife’ blog. I was curious because where I live in Orkney, Wife just means ‘woman’ and has no connotations of marital status. Hence I use the word ‘spouse’ to denote my marital partner as it is gender neutral and definitely involves being married. Your blog doesn’t mention this so I though you might like to know that there is a place in the UK where being a wife is purely about gender and not about status.
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I like your blog but you have no way of commenting on your articles or of contacting you outside of social media, which many people don’t want to use. You should include comments.
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I’ve published this comment because it’s one I get a lot. Here’s my response to it.
When I started this blog I did have comments open. I knew I’d need to moderate them rather than just automatically publishing everything: feminist stuff attracts trolls and language stuff attracts cranks. Both groups make it hard to have a respectful and constructive discussion, and that was the only kind I was willing to host. But initially I didn’t think it would be a big problem. I was expecting a blog on this rather niche subject to find a relatively small and mostly supportive audience. But within a couple of months the numbers reading and following it had grown a lot, and when a new post went properly viral in July 15, I couldn’t cope with the volume of comments. I do this in my spare time, and there has to be some limit on how much time it takes up. So, I decided to turn the comments off. I do read the ones people still submit, and sometimes I reply privately; I also engage in discussion on Twitter. If you don’t enjoy reading blogs that don’t make space for readers’ views that’s your choice–no one has to read what I put up here. I’m pretty sure some people did stop following when I stopped publishing comments. But that was my choice, and I’ll be sticking with it.
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[…] word recently in “Math, Maugham, and Man.” Pertinent is a comment on Cameron’s author page by somebody called kate on December 10, 2018: “where I live in Orkney, Wife just means […]
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This is an amazing blog on gender and language and rhetoric. You are giving knowledge to the general public–best of all, this knowledge is free. Thank you!
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Amazing blog! Currently, I’ve been researching women and music and finding it difficult to write about feminine compositional conventions versus a woman’s individual take on representing women. And I’m thankful for your blog posts, because they have served me as resource to sort things out in my head and writing. Thank you!
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Hello Debbie, Today’s Guardian just led me to read your 2015 post on the Just Not Sorry app. Loved it so I’m clicking on ‘follow’!
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Dear Deborah, I found your blog while I was reading your book “a short introduction to Feminism (in Korean)”This book is also translated into Korean. (I took some pictures of your Korean translated book but there are no options to upload them.) Please add this info in your author profile. Your book gives me so many insights and I can see clearly what
the “real” problem is. Thank you so much for your work and book!!
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Thank you Bora, you are right: there are more translations and I need a new picture! Don’t worry, I have a copy of the Korean edition. I can’t read it, but the cover design is actually one of my favourites
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