estufar

Why Maidist?

My first inklings of Maidism were born from my annoyance at the term Rifleman in military simulation spaces and a desire for a feminine replacement besides the standard, clunky "Riflewoman." I eventually settled on Riflemaid, for a number of reasons.

Firstly, it skews as close to man/mate as one can get while still being visually and audibly distinct, allowing it to easily replace them in existing phrases and compound words.

Secondly, "female" derives from Latin "femelle" (to suckle) but was later altered to match "male" so, doesn’t really serve our purposes here. "Woman" likewise comes from when "man" was neutral and synonymous with "hand" around 8 centuries ago, where we had the feminine "wifman" (wifehand) and masculine "werman" (manhand), but with "man" now masculine, woman doesn’t quite work either. That's where we get werewolf btw.

Thirdly, we already use maid in this way, just uncommonly, with mermaid, barmaid, handmaid, shieldmaid, bridesmaid, and so on. I like it, maid feels good on the tongue, and I work in housekeeping, I think maid deserves to be a term of honor, as femininity deserves as a whole, rather than its historical and contemporary denegrated position.

Why English?

It's my primary language. I've heard from those involved in great feminist discourse happening in other languages across the globe, and while I do some due diligence in basic feminizing of loan words I use in writing (o -> a in Spanish agent nouns, +in for Deutsch), I'm probably not who you should consult for deeper detail on that.

Why Idialect?

In linguistics, an idiolect describes the distinct dialect of an individual, and Maidism is more or less the product of a one maid army, though maybe it won't stay that way! However, the Greek idio- is masculine, its feminine equivalent is idia-. Thus, idialect.

The Fundamentals

So, down to the actual brass tacks. We can largely divide masculine language into two categories:

intrinsically masculine language, which contains a root or suffix synonymous with "man"

extrinsically masculine language, which lacks any masculine signifiess, but grew to be treated as masculine over time

There's gray areas, but let's go over some clear examples.

Intrinsic: mailman, actor, baker, lieutenant, aquarius, patriot

These feminize as mailmaid, actress, bakster, lieutenante, aquaria, and matriot, respectively. You can also mix up feminine suffixes, -trice/-trix/-tress are synonymous, same with -ster/-stress/ess, and others. Use what feels right to you in the moment! If you don't know the origin of an agent suffix, check it on wiktionary, there's a good chance its masculine.

Generally, avoid -er, -(t)or, -(ar)ius, -eur, -ant, -o. Be particularly wary of words from Latin and French, they're slippery bastardes. At least French you can slap an -e on most suffixes and call it a day.

Extrinsic: priest, lord, king, shepherd, drone, drake.

Traditionally feminize as priestess, lady, queen, shepherdess, bee, duck. Some of these terms (priest, lord, king) have no inherent masculinity to them, they were just roles historically exclusive to men. Shepherd is a clipping from sheepherder, I think it along with terms like priest or baron are fine, it can also be fun to use shepherdess, priestess, baroness, and the like. Femininity isn't something extraneous, it's something to assert proudly and to enjoy!

Drone, drake, and other terms for sexgendering animals are silly, all animals are girls. I also think its fine to keep using those terms as long as you're not thinking of the animal as "male" and still know she's, yknow, she. Use at your own peril.