Slavery of Women in America
Business Homes
Bedrooms Boardrooms
The Naked Truth
PICTURE
BOOK
OF
WOMEN
The
Slavery of
WOMEN
in
American
Business
Homes
Bedrooms
The
NAKED
TRUTH
PICTURE
BOOK
Womanhood is the period in a female's life after she has
transitioned from girlhood, at least physically, having
passed the age of menarche
. Many cultures have rites of
passage
to symbolize a woman's coming of age
, such as
confirmation in some branches of Christianity
, bat mitzvah
in Judaism
, or even just the custom of a special celebration
for a certain birthday
(generally between 12 and 21).
The word woman can be used generally, to mean any
female human, or specifically, to mean an adult female
human as contrasted with girl. The word girl originally
meant "young person of either sex" in English; it was only
around the beginning of the 16th century
that it came to
mean specifically a female child
. Nowadays girl sometimes
is used colloquially to refer to a young or unmarried
woman. During the early 1970s
feminists challenged such
use, and use of the word to refer to a fully grown woman
may cause offence. In particular previously common terms
such as office girl are no longer used.
Conversely, in certain cultures which link family honor
with female virginity
, the word girl is still used to refer to
a never-married woman; in this sense it is used in a fashion
roughly analogous to the obsolete English maid or maiden.
Referring to an unmarried female as a woman may, in such
a culture, imply that she is sexually experienced, which
would be an insult to her family.
In some settings, the use of girl to refer to an adult female
is a vestigial practice (such as girls' night out), even among
some elderly women. In this sense, girl may be considered
to be the analogue to the British word bloke for a man,
although it again fails to meet the paralle