A posting on the Demos blog recently (2nd Dec) got me thinking about gender loaded words. I think 'modest' is gender loaded. For me, it conjures up a 19th century Georgette Heyer heroine who smiles behind her hand. I think for a man to call a woman modest is patronising. Other gender loaded words are pretty, beautiful, stunning (all used for views as well..I wonder why ;) I didn't really challenge the blogger, because I didn't want to offend him (he's a nice fella). I can see now that women are turned off feminism because they don't want to offend men. And men are offended by feminism because they feel threatened by it. Apparently overtly feminist groups actually receive death threats. What are people so scared of? Surely exploring our language and behaviour in the context of gender gives us a greater understanding of ourselves. Where is the harm?