[continued from previous message]   
      
   >>> wife "with such a switch as the one he held in his hand" was within his   
   >>> matrimonial privilege.   
   >   
   >>> In the 18th century a judge named Francis Buller, dubbed "Judge Thumb"   
   >>> by   
   >>> the famous caricaturist James Gillray, was said to have allowed that a   
   >>> man   
   >>> could beat his wife, as long as the punitive stick was no thicker than   
   >>> his   
   >>> thumb. (A witty countess was said to have asked the judge to measure her   
   >>> husband's thumb exactly, so that she might know the precise extent of   
   >>> his   
   >>> privilege.)   
   >   
   >>> Fenick also found three 19th-century cases in America that mention the   
   >>> "rule   
   >>> of thumb," including an 1868 ruling in North Carolina that "the   
   >>> defendant   
   >>> had a right to whip his wife with a switch no larger than his thumb."   
   >   
   >>> Buller's "thumbstick" opinion and the three American rulings Fenick   
   >>> found   
   >>> were intriguing -- and damning -- but did not constitute definitive   
   >>> proof   
   >>> that the rule of thumb was derived from British common law.   
   >   
   >>> As Fenick, encouraged by a law professor, considered publishing her   
   >>> findings, she found that Henry Ansgar Kelly, a University of California   
   >>> English professor, had beaten her to the punch. His "Rule of Thumb and   
   >>> the   
   >>> Folklaw of the Husband's Stick" appeared in the September 1994 Journal   
   >>> of   
   >>> Legal Education.   
   >   
   >>> Kelly, much to Fenick's disappointment, had covered the same territory   
   >>> as   
   >>> she. (Although she proudly observes that his article overlooked the   
   >>> earliest   
   >>> reference to "rule of thumb" by Coghill.) Three and half years later,   
   >>> Safire   
   >>> would rely entirely on Kelly's article to make his case in his column.   
   >   
   >>> Fenick's efforts were not in vain, however. In response to a query from   
   >>> a   
   >>> correspondent to the alt.folkore.urban newsgroup linked to the Urban   
   >>> Legends   
   >>> Web site, Fenick posted her article where it is now part of the site's   
   >>> permanent archives. Since its inception, the site has expanded its   
   >>> mission   
   >>> from probing the genesis and spread of urban legends to "confirming or   
   >>> disproving beliefs and facts of all kinds, including origin of   
   >>> vernacular."   
   >   
   >>> "Rule of thumb" and other figures of speech can work much the same way   
   >>> that   
   >>> urban legends do: They may appear mysteriously, spread spontaneously and   
   >>> contain elements of humor or horror. And, like urban legends, a figure   
   >>> of   
   >>> speech may contain a grain of emotional, if not actual, truth.   
   >   
   >>> Thus it was easy at first for Fenick and others to believe that the   
   >>> "rule of   
   >>> thumb" was founded in common law. Patricia A. Turner, a University of   
   >>> California at Davis folklorist, well understands how a falsehood can   
   >>> acquire   
   >>> the mantle of truth.   
   >   
   >>> In "I Heard it Through the Grapevine: Rumor in African-American   
   >>> Culture,"   
   >>> Turner examines the way allegations of forced birth control, corporate   
   >>> collusion with the Ku Klux Klan, drug distribution targeted at urban   
   >>> areas   
   >>> and other anti-black conspiracy theories circulating in the   
   >>> African-American   
   >>> community are based on racist realities and serve as a form of   
   >>> resistance   
   >>> against white oppression.   
   >   
   >>> The same theory can be applied to the rule of thumb, Turner says. A text   
   >>> may   
   >>> be proved to be inaccurate or false, but "if it reflects some deeper   
   >>> truth   
   >>> in society, it doesn't go away." The term "rule of thumb" may "not have   
   >>> that   
   >>> specific etymological origin, but men have dominated women in workplaces   
   >>> and   
   >>> in homes and in virtually every setting. It speaks to a deeper truth."   
   >   
   >>> Students of women's history who want to research possibly apocryphal   
   >>> ideas   
   >>> are also at a disadvantage because they "don't have the paper trail that   
   >>> more mainstream areas of academic discipline have," Turner says.   
   >>> "Sometimes   
   >>> it's more difficult to get to the bottom of something."   
   >   
   >>> That said, Turner acknowledges that it is "very sloppy for an academic   
   >>> to   
   >>> pass on misinformation." Once a theory such as the inaccurate history of   
   >>> the   
   >>> "rule of thumb" has been debunked, it can backfire on those promoting   
   >>> it,   
   >>> she says. "If someone has read it who knows it is false, everything gets   
   >>> discredited on that level. So based on one falsehood, a whole history   
   >>> can be   
   >>> challenged."   
   >   
   >>> That is what concerned scholars and social critics say happened when   
   >>> Christina Hoff Sommers debunked the "rule of thumb" in her 1994 book,   
   >>> "Who   
   >>> Stole Feminism? How Women have Betrayed Women." Sommers finds the   
   >>> earliest   
   >>> misuse of the phrase in a 1976 National Organization for Women report   
   >>> and   
   >>> uses it to bolster her case against domestic-violence statistics.   
   >   
   >>> The feminist rush to brandish the "rule of thumb" as justification for   
   >>> their   
   >>> crusade, Turner suggests, may inadvertently have provided Sommers and   
   >>> her   
   >>> sympathizers with the ideal ammunition to discredit the same cause.   
   >   
   >>> As for Fenick, she received a nice letter from Kelly, who learned RTC of   
   >>> her   
   >>> research after the Safire piece ran. She has written him back, and hopes   
   >>> to   
   >>> hear soon what he thinks about her Coghill reference.   
   >   
   >>> Pub Date: 4/17/98   
   >   
   >>> Found in my drafts file, worth archiving.   
   >   
   >   
   > *************************************************************   
      
   Thanks again for reading and commenting.   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)