[Seree Zohar]

For a project exploring women whose names should be well known but who, over the 20th century, were actually censored from public knowledge, the title of John Lennon's 1972 song was suggested: Woman is the Nigger of the World. That was then, and here we are now, 40 years later. How do you feel about such a title, which includes Lennon's name and the song title?
thanks

[Roger Slater]

I think you're asking for trouble. I'd go with something else.

[E. Shaun Russell]

With a title like that, people aren't going to care about the aim of the project. People are going to care that you used the word "Nigger" in the title.

Like Roger said, you're just asking for trouble. Let the project be about its content, and have a title that reflects that.

[Curtis Gale Weeks]

You might also experience the unintended circumstance of debates arising over which class of person has suffered more and whether the comparison is accurate. Some might be more offended by the suggestion that those women have had it just as bad, than by the use of the word itself. Trying to appropriate all the baggage of the word for women might also be seen in a very negative light: Putting the word to a "good" use, as if it can be used well.

I don't know, but that word seems to have an extremely unique position in the history of our language.

[Chris O'Carroll]

Seree, I have at least one Irish peasant ancestor, as recent as U.S. slavery, who was cannon fodder for the British Empire. (The military was one of the few available avenues of escape from the hand that history had dealt him.) “O’Nigger” might be an accurate, defensible description of his experience. But it also might be perceived as a hijacking of one people’s suffering to describe another’s.

What women have suffered under the dominance of men is comparable, though not identical, to what blacks have suffered under the dominance of whites. So the title you’re contemplating would not be totally off the mark. But it might be a bad choice anyway.

[Skip Dewahl]

You could try synonyms: helot of humanity, serf of the solar system, peon of the planet, groveler of the globe, Aunt Tomasina of the two hemispheres.

[Seree Zohar]

thanks so much to you all for inputting. yes, agreed, the N word has "uniquified" itself too far to be generally applied. the project is being written up by more than one person, and I'll present these thoughts [sans names] and try to get them to strike off the Lennon quote.

[Gail White]

When you have the time, Seree, I'd love to know the names of some of the women you'll be including in the study.

[John Whitworth]

Of course in 1972 the word wasn't as excoriated as it is now. It was used in Marks & Spencer.