The origins of the meaning of the word husband are rooted in dominance; a husband is the one who stewards, manages -- and in Athering women are dominant, without question. They steward, they manage.
I didn't want to use a neutral term like spouse exclusionary of gender-specific terms, and I didn't want to come up with a new word as I have for so many other things. I wanted it to be shocking; I wanted people to be confused by it, and to wonder why I did it that way. I wanted to show that "You can do this too", that patriarchy isn't a default for fantasy worlds. And I wanted to do it -- the whole world, the whole series -- as a sort of...language experiment. It's not perfect; I don't claim it to be, but I put a lot of work into changing the language of this world to be female-dominant; changing terms and words we take for granted in the patriarchal world we live in without ever thinking about it being male-as-default. I made female default in Athering, and it didn't make any sense to me for husband to still be a male-coded word when it also refers to the one in charge.
(And it didn't make sense to go totally neutral with words, either, as Athering is still a pretty sexist society -- just in the opposite direction of what we're used to.)
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The origins of the meaning of the word husband are rooted in dominance; a husband is the one who stewards, manages -- and in Athering women are dominant, without question. They steward, they manage.
I didn't want to use a neutral term like spouse exclusionary of gender-specific terms, and I didn't want to come up with a new word as I have for so many other things. I wanted it to be shocking; I wanted people to be confused by it, and to wonder why I did it that way. I wanted to show that "You can do this too", that patriarchy isn't a default for fantasy worlds. And I wanted to do it -- the whole world, the whole series -- as a sort of...language experiment. It's not perfect; I don't claim it to be, but I put a lot of work into changing the language of this world to be female-dominant; changing terms and words we take for granted in the patriarchal world we live in without ever thinking about it being male-as-default. I made female default in Athering, and it didn't make any sense to me for husband to still be a male-coded word when it also refers to the one in charge.
(And it didn't make sense to go totally neutral with words, either, as Athering is still a pretty sexist society -- just in the opposite direction of what we're used to.)
I hope that makes sense/explains my reasoning. :)