People from Lesbos suing Lesbians

[IDrinkaRum]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080430/..._lesbian_pride

3 people from the Island Nation, Lesbos, is suing the Homosexual & Lesbian Community of Greece over the term Lesbian in their name.

The people of Lesbos claim they have been using the term Lesbian to denote they are from Lesbos, and the word Lesbian has only been associated with homosexual women for a few decades.

Who is right? Is there even a "right" and "wrong" in this? What does everyone think?

[Greenday]

Well, considering the word "lesbian" has now been associate with homosexual women for some time now, they will still get funny looks whenever they proclaim themselves to be Lesbos.

[ThePhoneGoddess]

The thing is that the word lesbian is used all over the world. Suing one organization in Greece is not going to change that. I don't know what they think they are going to accomplish.

[DesignFox]

Is it wrong that I find this extremely funny?

And yea...what do these 3 people from Lesbos think they are going to accomplish?
It's not going to change what the word lesbian means to the rest of the world...

Maybe they should call themselves something else, or just say, "I'm from Lesbos!"

[lordlundar]

Is it wrong that I find this extremely funny?

If it is, then join the club.

[AFPheonix]

Is it wrong that I find this extremely funny?

If it's wrong, then I don't want to be right

[Rapscallion]

If memory serves, there were some rather interesting poems by Sappho of Lesbos, recounting the charms of her female students. That's how the term came about.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sappho for some more details.

Rapscallion

[Slytovhand]

Is it wrong that I find this extremely funny?

And yea...what do these 3 people from Lesbos think they are going to accomplish?
It's not going to change what the word lesbian means to the rest of the world...

Maybe they should call themselves something else, or just say, "I'm from Lesbos!"

Firstly... I'm #3 (or are we up to 4 now?) Oh - and I'm not referring the the 3 making the lawsuit either

Actually - yes, it can change the rest of the world. It happens. A fair bit. If it's allowed to. Question - what does the word 'Indian' refer to? What does the word 'nigger' refer to? The meaning of words change all the time, so it just might be possible for that to change as well. After all, can you imagine a Greek Island immigrant sitting in an American school trying to explain to their classmates that they are a lesbian?? "Now class, here is Angelos, and he's a Lesbian - STOP THAT LAUGHING!!!"

Although, Lesbosian would make more sense.


(on the subject of etymology, did you know the word 'barbarian' comes from the greek, in reference to the northerners of Europe who all spoke in that 'bar bar' language /trivia )

Slyt

[Rapscallion]

(on the subject of etymology, did you know the word 'barbarian' comes from the greek, in reference to the northerners of Europe who all spoke in that 'bar bar' language /trivia )

Slyt

Hmm - I'd heard it was more to do with the Latin word for beards (from which we get barber), which referred to the generally unshaven chins of the chaps involved.

Rapscallion

[Slytovhand]

IIRC, Well - it could have come from a biased source - a Classical Greek professor...


But then again... check my sigfile

(edit: bugger... just realised I don't have one on this place ... ok... my sigfile on my CS profile )