From cauldrons to cardigans - the lurking prejudices behind the name âGrannyâ
<div class="theconversation-article-body"><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/kate-burridge-130136">Kate Burridge</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/monash-university-1065">Monash University</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/catherine-barrett-12661">Catherine Barrett</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/la-trobe-university-842">La Trobe University</a></em></p>
<blockquote>
<p>âHonestly, I canât wait to have grandkids and spoil them â but I donât want to be called âGrannyââ (overheard on the No. 96 tram in Melbourne)</p>
<p>âI love it. Itâs not the word that needs to change, itâs our cultureâ (Deborah, proud granny)</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Whatâs wrong with âgrannyâ?</h2>
<p>From its debut in the early 1600s, âgrannyâ has been more than an affectionate term for grandma â and a cursory glance at its history tells a depressingly familiar story.</p>
<p>First, the instability and decline of words associated with women. âGrannyâ joins a long list of words, particularly for older women, that that have acquired negative meanings â spinsters were originally spinners; sluts were untidy people; slags and shrews were rogues; scolds were poets; bimbos were men, and so on. Many started life referring to men, but quickly narrowed to female application â and with this sexual specification came further decline.</p>
<p>Right from the start, grannies were also people engaged in trivial (often self-serving) chatter; in other words, grannies were gossips, tell-tales and nosy parkers. In the 1700s, more negative meanings piled on â grannies became fussy, indecisive or unenterprising persons, and in many places stupid as well.</p>
<p>The online crowdsourced Urban Dictionary now has a flourishing of additional disparaging senses for âgrannyâ that have yet to make it into more mainstream collections.</p>
<p>In sport, grannies refer to those who perform poorly, or theyâre a kind of dead leg injury (which leaves you â<a href="https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Granny">hobbling around</a> like an old granny for the rest of the dayâ).</p>
<h2>âDonât be a grannyâ!</h2>
<p>Tellingly, the negative uses of granny have never been restricted to women â one <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/The_Folk_speech_of_South_Cheshire.html?id=_6ETAAAAQAAJ&redir_esc=y">19th-century dictionary</a> defines âgrannyâ as âa simpleton: used of both sexesâ. Itâs another telling asymmetry in our lexicon. Terms for women are insulting when used of men (âDad, donât be such a grannyâ), but terms designating men when used of women have little or no affront. If you were to call a women a grampa or an old man, thereâs really no abuse â it just seems odd.</p>
<p>Unflattering âgrannyâ compounds are plentiful in English: a âgranny knotâ is one thatâs inexpertly tied, while âgranny gearâ is an extremely low first gear. New ones are arriving all the time: âgranny weedâ is low-quality marijuana that is old or dried out; âgranny shotâ is said of a basketballer with little skill; âgranny modeâ in video games is a slower speed than normal, âgranny pantsâ (like other âgranny-likeâ items) are naff âold ladyâ styles (in the fashion world, the phrase ânot your grannyâsâ describes edgy or trendy clothes â not fashion choices made or worn by grandmothers). The Oxford English Dictionary gives 29 âgrannyâ compounds, but provides not a single compound with âgrandpaâ, âgrampaâ or âgrampsâ.</p>
<p>These terms for oneâs grandfather have also been remarkably stable over time. This dictionary gives a single definition: âOneâs grandfather. Also used as a familiar form of address to oneâs grandfather or to an elderly manâ. Even Urban Dictionary, not known for its politeness, has little in the way of slangy senses for âgrandpaâ or âgrampsâ â the closest are playful entries referring to older men or grandfathers. You might compare âcodgerâ or âgeezerâ â sure, theyâre not exactly flattering, but they donât pack anywhere near same punch as do âcroneâ, âhagâ, âbattle-axeâ, âold batâ, âold bagâ and so on.</p>
<h2>Granny goodness and greedy granny</h2>
<p>Current films, comics and games reveal another way words for women evolve. To set the scene, consider the fate of âwitchâ, now a slur for older women. Originally, witches could be male sorcerers, but when used of women they became something very nasty â witches were females who had dealings with the devil. Our jokey image of witches these days canât capture the potency of this word in early times, but it has never completely shed its connotations of evil. We still retain abusive epithets like â(old) witchâ and also expressions like âwitchesâ cauldronâ to describe sinister situations. And now hereâs granny in the very same cauldron.</p>
<p><a href="https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Granny_Goodness_(DC)">Granny Goodness</a> is one of the most well-known evil grannies in entertainment. Known for her cruelty and manipulation, this super villain hides under a façade of grandmotherly affection. <a href="https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Granny_(Granny)">Granny</a> is a survival video game where the main antagonist, Granny, is a hideously sadistic serial killer who locks people in her house and taunts them for days before brutally killing them.</p>
<p>Then thereâs <a href="https://dishonored.fandom.com/wiki/Vera_Moray">Granny Rags</a>, a mad, decrepit old woman whose vulnerable and destitute appearance conceals a very dark nature underneath. Of course, there are sometimes dark older male figures too, but theyâre not explicitly grandfathers (for example, Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars or Dr Wily, an older, mad scientist who creates robotic menaces to achieve world domination). And theyâre not in the same league as those decrepit, old, malicious women â the âwitchesâ of pop culture.</p>
<p>And now thereâs the <a href="https://www.bigw.com.au/product/greedy-granny/p/89891">Greedy Granny</a> toy for the little ones. The aim is to steal from this grasping grandma and get away with it.</p>
<h2>Words make worlds</h2>
<p>Words are declarations of social attitudes and belief systems. Through the way we speak, the words we use and our interactions, the language reveals and reinforces psychological and social roles â status, power dynamics and relationships. Here is some context for grannies:</p>
<p>⢠older women are <a href="https://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/2437426/HILDA-SR-med-res.pdf">the lowest income earning family group</a></p>
<p>⢠34% of single older women <a href="https://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/2437426/HILDA-SR-med-res.pdf">live in poverty</a></p>
<p>⢠60% of older women <a href="https://officeforwomen.sa.gov.au/womens-policy/womens-employment-and-economic-status/superannuation">leave paid work with no super</a> and women with super have <a href="https://assets.kpmg.com/content/dam/kpmg/au/pdf/2021/addressing-gender-superannuation-gap.pdf">28% less than men</a></p>
<p>⢠60% of older women rely entirely <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Economics/Economic_security_for_women_in_retirement/Report/c09">on the old age pension</a></p>
<p>⢠40% increase in <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/homelessness-services/specialist-homelessness-services-annual-report/contents/older-clients">homelessness for older women</a></p>
<p>⢠older women are more likely to <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/about/news/speeches/safety-and-security-older-women">experience workplace discrimination</a></p>
<p>⢠23% of women aged 60 years+ have experienced <a href="https://aifs.gov.au/sites/default/files/2022-08/22-01_prevalence-of-elder-abuse.pdf">intimate partner violence</a>.</p>
<h2>Don a granny cardy</h2>
<p>Negative senses of expressions have a saliency that will dominate and eventually expel other senses. This transformation has a name: <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Forbidden_Words.html?id=b2rCLYHjDMgC&redir_esc=y">Greshamâs Law of Semantic Change</a> (âbad meanings drive out goodâ).</p>
<p>So what can be done to help drag âgrannyâ out of this semantic abyss?</p>
<p>Many older women are giving themselves the term and doing this playfully or as a way to reclaim power (for example the <a href="https://www.pastagrannies.com/">Pasta Grannies</a> and the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-30/granny-grommets-albany-western-australia-middleton-beach/102398172">Granny Grommets</a>). Reframing expressions in this way may not neutralise them, but it can make us more aware of the lurking prejudices.</p>
<p>And why not slip into a cardigan? September 22 marks the worldâs first <a href="https://www.celebrateageing.com/cardiganpride.html">Cardigan Pride Festival</a>. Australians around the country will don cardigans in a call to combat the inequalities older women face â and to show theyâve got older womenâs backs (and shoulders) covered.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/238200/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/kate-burridge-130136"><em>Kate Burridge</em></a><em>, Professor of Linguistics, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/monash-university-1065">Monash University</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/catherine-barrett-12661">Catherine Barrett</a>, Director, Celebrate Ageing Ltd, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/la-trobe-university-842">La Trobe University</a></em></p>
<p><em>Image credits: Shutterstock </em></p>
<p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-cauldrons-to-cardigans-the-lurking-prejudices-behind-the-name-granny-238200">original article</a>.</em></p>
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