The vault of lost lyrics, chapter 73

A perfect song for lazy summer afternoons.

**

"Dark Horse" (as recorded by Amanda Marshall)

Indian summer, Abeline,

You were new in town, I was nineteen

And the sparks flew

They called us crazy behind our backs

Romantic fools

We just let them laugh

Because we knew

It may be a long shot

We may get lonely down the line

Love knows no reason

And I won't let 'em make up my mind

My money's riding on this dark horse, baby

My heart is saying it's the lucky one

And its true colour's gonna shine through someday

If we let this, let this dark horse run

Stars are brighter in a desert sky

No need to wonder or justify

Where this will lead

I wear your locket, our picture's inside

Inscription says, "The joy's in the ride"

And I believe

Something so sacred

Is something worth this kind of fight

'Cause love knows no patience

You can't please everyone all the time

My money's riding on this dark horse, baby

My heart is saying it's the lucky one

And its true colour's gonna shine through someday

If we let this, let this dark horse run

So rare, so sweet

Together baby, I know

We can be free

My money's riding on this dark horse, baby

My heart is saying it's the lucky one

And its true colour's gonna shine through someday

If we let this, let this dark horse run

Indian summer, Abeline,

You were new in town, I was nineteen ...

Young little girls

As an editor, there are many, many things I'd like to change about the way English speakers and writers use language. As a woman, there are many, many more. As a feminist editor, I would be content if I could bring about a more mindful use of the phrases little girl and young girl in today's writers and speakers.

Leaving aside questions of gender and trans-sexual identification, a girl, legally defined, is a female person under the age of majority — in Canada, eighteen. A female infant is a baby girl, or a girl baby.

In journalistic writing and fiction, I increasingly see the term little girl or young girl applied to girls in their teens and even women in their early twenties. As a feminist, I find this usage troubling, and I'm working with the authors I edit to stop it.

For me, a little girl is a girl who is no longer an infant and who has not yet started school. After that, a girl is a girl; she might be described as a young girl. Once she hits her teens, she's a teenage girl or a young woman (as many feminists will assert). But a teenager is not a little girl (affection-laden sobriquets notwithstanding).

Men may call teenage girls, young women, and women over eighteen little girls and/or young girls for a number of reasons. In our culture, however, I think we should consider the current pressures on men to take up space — socially, physically, economically — and on women NOT to take up space. Being diminished as little suggests a young woman is cute, inoffensive, and insignificant. (Think of the language that surround girls and women who threaten boys and men; think of how language is used to discredit, undercut, and devalue these girls and women.) And I think there's just something dangerous about the idea of a "young" girl.

So, please think before you describe a person as a little girl or a young girl. If she's five years old, then go ahead. Otherwise, think again.