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Language and Gender
Rachelle Dagher
Brigitte Ghorayeb
Ragheb Raad
1- Activity one:
Pictures on PowerPoint (fireman, cleaning lady). Conclusion: our language is sexist.
2- Why Sexist Language Matter by Sherryl Kleinman.
According to Sherryl Kleinman (2007) in the article “Why Sexist Language Matters”, changing the way we talk is a simple way to start overcoming gender inequality.
She discusses sexist language; her focus is on words that people consider okay such as male-generics:
Examples of male-generics are:
- Words that refer to a working position: postman, chairman, freshman, congressman, fireman.
- Words that refer to all human beings: “mankind”, “he”
- Expressions such as: “oh man”, “all men are created equal”, “you guys”, which are found everywhere in the world.
These examples of male-based generics prove that there is a system in both the language and the world in which men are privileged over women.
According to Kleinman, “Words are tools of thought”, and we can think in new ways in order to change the status quo.
There is so much gender inequality that women are expected to feel grateful when called “chairman” and “you
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Hence, it is only deductible that men be the most talkative since in situations where the status quo plays a role, higher status people are more loquacious. Yet, it has been proven that in informal situations, where status does not play a role, men and women are equally verbal. However, experiments have shown that one can reduce the claim that “men talk more” when a more female sensible/oriented subject is brought up. Following this line of logic, one will find that the reason women are thought to be more talkative in the domestic sphere is because they are held in charge of the family member,
Tannen points out “a greater percentage of discussion time is taken by men’s voices.” (2) She tells us why this is a disadvantage to the women in the classroom. She then continued to separate the two genders into their given stereotypes. Girls tend to separate themselves from large groups; they talk amongst
middle of paper ... ... e 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’.
Many feminist/post-modern theorists see language as a patriarchal construct that excludes women. As Jeanie Forte writes, this characterization of language is informed by Lacanian theory, which, in turn, is influenc...
Sexism is a highly talked about issue read about online, seen in the news, and experienced in the day to day lives of many. The importance of this issue can be found in many writings. Authors such as Sandra Cisneros, Linda Hasselstrom, and Judy Brady have all discussed the topic of sexism in writings and how they affected their lives. Although each writer addresses the issue of sexism, each author confronts a different type of sexism; the kind we are born into, the kind we learn growing up, and the kind that is accepted by society at the end of the day.
Gender Matters is a collection of various essays on feminist linguistic texts analysis, by Sara Mills. Mills develops methods of analyzing literary and non-literary texts, in addition to conversational analysis based on a feminist approach. The author draws on data from her collection of essays gathered over the last two decades on feminism during the 1990s. The essays focus on gender issues, the representation of gender in reading, writing, and in public speaking. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of feminists’ analysis of sexism in literature and the relation between gender and politeness. The article is informative for my research paper, as my topic is going to cover language analysis of the text and who women reading and writing differs according to the discourse analysis within linguistic, psychology, case studies audiences and surveys. The book would be helpful, particularly the last three essays that discusses gender, public speaking, the question of politeness and impoliteness in public speaking. Mills’ analysis is not complete without including the idea of global notions of both women and men, to see whether women and men write and read in the same way globally. Therefore, an update would enrich the book’s discussion section. Although, Mills addresses the class and race theme in language and public speaking, I will only look into the role of language that plays a part in doing or reducing gender in literary, non-literary texts and in conversation.
perspective on the concept, arguing that gender is a cultural performance. Her careful reading of
Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on sex or gender, especially against women and girls. It can be the belief that one sex is more superior to the opposite sex. In this movie, Jean Kilbourne narrates how media perpetrates the idea that the male is superior to the female. She proves her point through presenting examples of how women are altered in advertisements.
Rafelman derives the gender differences in the language through her context. Rafelman thinks that in a party, men prefer to talk about business and avoid privacies, while women are more likely to involve in conversations and talk about personal details. She also indicates that in a formal party, people split up into two groups: men and women, and men always talk about business which is thought to be very boring. Men talk about business because they want to enhance their status and create more chances to make money. They think “money, as one wag once observed, is life’s report card” (Rafelman 318). Ha...
Gender roles are a staple construct of human civilization, designating the behaviors and lifestyles that society expects out of its participants, with gender as the defining characteristic. Historically, females have been at the forefront of the conversation, with feminism regarded as the principal solution to the well-established issue of gender inequality. However, this is foolish. To truly mend the gender inequalities forged by thousands of years of human interaction, both genders have to be acknowledged. Both males and females are equally constrained by gender roles, however the effects of this constraint are in differing fields. There are studies showing that females are at a disadvantage economically, in the workplace, while other studies
Nilsen began this study of the dictionary not with the intention of prescribing language change but simply to see what the language would reveal about sexism to her. Sexism is not something that existing independently in American English or in the particular dictionary that she happened to read. Rather it exists in people's minds.
...rms of power and source of pride in society. Emphasizing sexism in language and rising the concern with words can be a vital feminist strategy to provoke social change (Weatherall, 2002). Language can produce a false imagination and represents women and men unequally, as if members of one sex were somehow less wholly human, less complex, and has fewer rights than members of the other sex. Sexist language also characterizes serotypes of women and men, sometimes to the disadvantage of both, but more often to the disadvantage of women. (Wareing & Thomas, 2012). As a result, it is necessary that individuals have the right to define, and to redefine as their lives unfold, their own gender identities, without regard to genitalia, assigned birth sex, or initial gender role. Language about women is not a nonaligned or an insignificant issue but profoundly a political one.
Society has females and males alike typecasted into roles which have basic characteristics that are the reverse of each other. Although this has begun to change over the past thirty years, typically the man was seen as superior to the female. This superior image is one that today, is slowly on its way to being reduced to one of complete equality between the two genders.
Since men and women work closely in the workplace today, there are many complaints addressing the differences in the genders. Simma Lieberman addresses these differences in her article, “Better Communication Between Men and Women in the Workplace: Some Useful Tips”. Men tend to think that women take things too seriously, are slow in getting down to business, and try to be “one of the boys”. A complaint that women give about men is that they are being labeled names such as: “girls”, “honey”, and “darlin”. Other complaints are that men make women into objects, making decisions about work with other men and not including the women, and using expressions that only use sports, violence or sexual connotations s...
There are many ways people use gender communication in their advantage; however, if we misused this skill it will cause misunderstanding between ourselves and our peers. An effective method of using gender communication is when seen when we inputted to our workplace. One experience that I have with a successful usage of gender communication is when I am at work serving my customers. While working in a Chinese restaurant, I realized that being a female waitress, the customers have a higher chance of being persuade in making a purchase. I think the main reason behind this is because society have a prejudice towards female that they will perform better service than male servers. Female servers give an impression of cleanliness and kindness towards the customers. When customers will often tip more than usual when their server is a female
The initial germinations of the Language and gender field began in 1922 with Otto Jespersen, who was a grammarian and a proponent of 'Deficit Theory' although the actual term 'Deficit Theory' was retrospectively applied to Jespersen's conclusions. In Jespersen's work he concluded the male language to be the normative and other variants such as women's, children’s and foreigner’s speech to be inferior and consequently deficient in comparison with male speech. Jespersen’s theories may seem politically incorrect and sexist within the modern moral universe but we must read him with an understanding of the context of the time. In 1922, women still played a subordinate role in society compared to that of men, male superiority was a common and accepted idea; Jespersen was expressing the status quo. In regard to this, it is my view that we should view Jespersen's work without prejudice and judge him with logic and reason. If we are earnestly committed in our search for truth, we cannot let ethics cloud or distort our findings, it would wrong to invest in the sciences but then disre...