Gender, Space and Outer Space
Today we start a new feature on the iGDN’s blog: the column, where members share their – hopefully – thought-provoking ideas and impulses. The first one takes you now into the vastness of outer space. It’s November and if you’re in Germany these days, you may well find yourself running into a traditional St. Martin’s parade with kids holding lanterns and singing “lantern, lantern, sun, moon and stars” (which actually rhymes in German). And, if you look closely, you can spot very traditional lanterns with the sun or the moon on it. And if you look even closer, the sun features a full, smiling, red mouth, the big eyes have long lashes and the cheeks are blushing. In contrast to that, the moon has strong, dark eyebrows, sometimes it smokes a pipe and, overall, it has sharp features. Apparently, the sun appears to be female while the moon is male. The explanation for this could be the obvious linguistic one: In German as a Proto-Indo-European language, the moon (der Mond) is, as indicated by it’s article, male, the