I’m watching the one-sided political debate between Tymoshenko and Tymoshenko in Ukrainian while translating a text about oil containers from English into Russian.
In Ukrainian (and Russian), the word for “courage” is “manliness.” It sounded really funny when Tymoshenko wished that her male opponent were as “manly” as she was and had come to the debate. Of course, nobody in Ukraine (and Russia) would identify the situation as funny.
Well, in American Slang, the expression “Grow a pair” for telling someone to become courageous is pretty much the same as “Be a man”. No one thinks of the Other Paired Gonads (ovaries). Also, Clarissa and others living in rural areas, observe the phenomenon of “Truck Nuts” (view the website for photos) – hilarious. . http://www.bullsballs.com/balls/photos.html
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You live, you learn, seriously. Scary shit.
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There should be a word for resilient courage that is not male defined.
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I have taken to using “Brass ‘Nads” or “gonadal fortitude” as gender neutral equivalents (the original expression being “brass balls”).
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
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