The English Language Systematically Degrades and Devalues Women

The English Language Systematically Degrades and Devalues Women

It is often argued that the English language needs to be modernised to

keep pace with the rapidly changing societies in the world. One

reason for this is many words and their usages are viewed as sexist,

in that they are discriminating against individuals based on their

gender. In this essay, I shall discuss many factors relevant to

the argument that the English language systematically degrades and

devalues women.

One possible argument in agreement with this statement is that male

words and their female equivalents are often asymmetrical in their

connotations and implications. For example, pairs of words such as

‘bachelor’ and ‘spinster’, have distinctively different associations:

‘spinster’ has relatively negative undertones, and conjures the image

of an aging woman with a dull lifestyle, whereas the word ‘bachelor’

suggests a more carefree, younger man with an exciting and enjoyable

way of life. This inconsistency in the English language is hard to

rectify, considering it is not the dictionary definition that needs

altering, but the associations society as a whole has with these

words. Therefore, in this circumstance the blame for the sexist

lexical asymmetry does not lay with the English language, but with

society’s interpretation of the vocabulary.

The regular occurrence of marked terms for female roles is a second

example where the English language may be seen as degrading to women.

Illustrations of this include ‘actress’ for females, where a suffix

has been added onto the end of the unmarked mal...

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they are so firmly embedded in the everyday language used by society.

However, the ‘politically-correct’ era is dawning on Britain at

present, and the public is becoming more aware of sexist speech as

well as lexis that discriminates other groups of people.

Gender-specific words are being discouraged by Government campaigns,

even altering the curriculum so that young children are taught to

refer to ‘police officers’ and ‘firefighters’ instead of ‘policemen’

and ‘firemen’. However, society is not prepared to change radically,

as some feminist groups that tried to introduce vocabulary entirely

unspecific to gender have discovered. Lexis such as ‘womyn’ to

replace ‘women’, and ‘herstory’ to replace ‘history’ are widely

unaccepted as part of the English language, and this is unlikely to

change in the near future.