Woman

A woman is a female human. The term woman is usually reserved for an adult, with the term girl being the usual term for a female child or adolescent. The term woman is also sometimes used to identify a female human, regardless of age, as in phrases such as "women's rights". "Woman" may also refer to a person's gender identity. Women with typical genetic development are usually capable of giving birth from puberty until menopause. In the context of gender identity, transgender people who are biologically determined to be male and identify as women cannot give birth. Some intersex people who identify as women cannot give birth due to either sterility or inheriting one or more Y chromosomes. In extremely rare cases, people who have Swyer syndrome can give birth with medical assistance. Throughout history women have assumed or been assigned various social roles.

Etymology

The spelling of woman in English has progressed over the past millennium from wīfmann to wīmmann to wumman, and finally, the modern spelling woman. In Old English, wīfmann meant "female human", whereas wēr meant "male human". Mann or monn had a gender-neutral meaning of "human", corresponding to Modern English "person" or "someone"; however, subsequent to the Norman Conquest, man began to be used more in reference to "male human", and by the late 13th century had begun to eclipse usage of the older term wēr. The medial labial consonants f and m in wīfmann coalesced into the modern form "woman", while the initial element, which meant "female", underwent semantic narrowing to the sense of a married woman ("wife"). It is a popular misconception that the term "woman" is etymologically connected with "womb", which is from a separate Old English word, wambe meaning "stomach" (of male or female; modern German retains the colloquial term "Wampe" from Middle High German for "potbelly"). Nevertheless, such a false derivation of "woman" has appeared in print.

Woman (1918 film)

Woman is a 1918 American silent film directed by Maurice Tourneur, an allegorical film showcasing the story of women through points in time. Popular in its day, the film was distributed in the State's Rights plan as opposed to a major distributor like Paramount or Universal. This film has been preserved in private collections and in major venues like the Museum of Modern Art and reportedly the Gosfilmofond Archive in Russia.

Some scenes were shot at Bar Harbor, Maine. It was here that one of Tourneur's cameramen, John van den Broek, lost his life while filming a scene close to the raging Atlantic Ocean. His body was swept out to sea and never found.

Prints of this film are held at Cineteca Del Friuli, Germona, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and Gosfilmofond of Russia, Moscow.

Plot

As described in a film magazine, a modern man and woman quarrel and, in reaction to his wife, the husband recalls all the women in history who have failed their husbands or lovers. Being in an unpleasant state, he recalls Adam in the garden with a very vain Eve who disports herself in a Broadway fashion and causes the downfall of caveman-like Adam. Then he dwells on the hideous betrayal of Claudius by an unfaithful Messilna. Next he recalls the useless ruination of Abelard by the charming Heloise. Following this episode he remembers Cyrene and the fisherman, where the wife basely deserted her husband and children to swim once more in her seal skin that had been hidden from her for many years. A particularly disagreeable episode in which a young woman during the American Civil War sacrifices a wounded soldier for a bauble. After this the modern woman returns and pins up a Red Cross poster, and the modern man sees the many women of today as more or less uninspiring. An epilogue noted how World War I made men realize the true value of women, and that women are working towards victory through good works in the Red Cross and other jobs.

Woman (1968 film)

Woman (여 - Yeo) is a 1968 three-part South Korean film directed by Kim Ki-young, Jung Jin-woo and Yu Hyun-mok. The film was based on ideas of Kim Ki-young's wife, Kim Yu-bong, and Kim directed the last third.

Synopsis

The film is a melodrama about a man who falls in love with a woman while traveling to Seoraksan. The man becomes infatuated with the woman's hair. The woman, who has a terminal illness, promises to leave her hair to the man after she has died. Later the man finds that the woman has died, and her hair has been sold to someone else. He then has a romantic relationship with another woman who turns out to be his mother.

Cast

Notes

Bibliography

French

French may refer to:

See also

French (surname)

French is an anglicised version of Defreine which has a Norman Irish origin.

The DeFreines, the ffrenches, and the Frenches, who were of noble blood, came to Ireland with Strongbow during the Norman invasion of Ireland from 1169 to 1172 AD. There were and still are two or three families of Irish peers who carry the names DeFréine, ffrench, and French. As Anglo-Normans the French family became one of the 14 Tribes of Galway, helping to found the town in 1425 AD, fortifying it to keep the locals out.

French is or was the family name of the following individuals (alphabetized by first name):

French people

The French (French: Français) are a nation and ethnic group who are identified with the country of France. This connection may be legal, historical, or cultural. Descending from peoples of Celtic (Gauls) origin, later mixing with Romance (Romans) and Germanic (Franks) origin, and having experienced a high rate of inward migration since the middle of the 19th century, modern French society can be considered a melting pot. France was still a patchwork of local customs and regional differences in the late 19th century, and besides the common speaking of the French language, the definition of some unified French culture is a complex issue. Some French have equated their nationality with citizenship, regardless of ethnicity or country of residence.

Successive waves of immigrants during the 19th and 20th centuries were rapidly assimilated into French culture. Seeing itself as an inclusive nation with universal values, France has always valued and strongly advocated assimilation where immigrants were expected to adhere to French traditional values and cultural norms. However, despite the success of such assimilation, the French Government abandoned it in the mid-1980s encouraging immigrants to retain their distinctive cultures and traditions and requiring from them a mere integration. This "integrationist" policy has recently been called into question, for example, following the 2005 French riots in some troubled and impoverished immigrant suburbs.