There are many movements in language like racial and sexist. If these controversies are such a big deal, why do we have them? Why exactly is there sexist language and why are so many people offended by it? Sexist language did not just come a concern a few decades back, but as early as 1908. Things have changed over the years and women now play a big role in society but sexist language is still a problem with some women.
The concerns of sexist language began in the 1960s and 1970s according to
Anne Pauwels, in her book Women Changing Language. Pauwels state," Concern with the linguistic treatment and representation of women is said to be a characteristic of the second wave of the women's movement which started in the late 1960s and early 1970s (Pauwels 17)." Around this time is when women began to write biographies about the subject. Although Pauwels also states," The topic of the discriminatory treatment of the sexes in language, however, is not a new activity or concern exclusive to the women's access to words, women's representation in language and women's naming practices had received attention in earlier times
(Pauwels 18)." These topics were brought up earlier in the years and were a concern and things were done about it.
In Pauwels book one of the concerns that were discussed happened in
Denmark in 1912. Lis Jacobsen had done research on the Danish language, she then published this research which was about,” …human agent nouns: she commented that men were named according to their social status in society whereas women were named according to their relationship with the man or men in their lives
(Pauwels 18).” Jacobsen’s research is not so much on sexist language, but the roles women had played. Women were found inferior to men in the earlier years. And that was the woman’s main concern, they no longer wanted to be inferior and they wanted to be equal. This is what caused the first wave of the women’s movement.
Throughout the years women began to focus more so on the words' in language. In Dale Spender book Man Made Language he discusses how language is male favored and this has brought out the concern of sexism in language. Spender discusses how," …one of the basic principles of feminists who are concerned with language is that this bias can be located in the language. The claim is that 'English is biased in favor of the male in both syntax and semantics (Spender 14)." Semantics is the meaning of the word; as syntax is the structure of the words and sentences. At the semantic view of the language, we find the English language to be very sexiest.
Most words found for women are to be sexual. Spender talks about research done by
Julia Stanley in 1977 where she found," …women there were 220 words for sexually promiscuous female and only 20 for a sexually promiscuous male (Spender 15)."
This is one reason women find the English language to be sexiest, women do not want to be known as and shown as sexual.
Another semantic view on the English language was also found in Spender's book about another researcher named Muriel Schulz. In 1975, Schulz began to look into why males had positive words like strong, smart, and hardworking associated with them. While, women had negative words like, weak, fragile, and dumb. Schulz while doing his research found," …observed that once a boy's name became popular as a girl's name it lost its appeal and usually ceased being used for boys (Spender
16)." Schulz used Shirley, Leslie, Beverly, Evelyn and Sidney as an example (Spender 16). These names used to be popular boy names but as soon as they were associated with a girls' name the name for boys quickly died out. This is not only found with names it is also found with words. The thing is that Schulz found is that it was this way for men, but the same could not be said for women.
However Spender's book also looked at the syntax view, which is how a sentence and words are structured. When English speakers’ talk they usually always put the males before the females. According to Spender's Man Made Language, the first appearance of the syntax was in 1553 by Thomas Wilson. "…who instead hat it was more natural to place the man before the women, as for example in male and female, husband and wife, brother and sister, son and daughter (Spender 147)." It doesn’t come apparent to most people that we do this. But again it is another way of showing how women are inferior to men.
Although many people do not see the semantics and syntax of our language being sexist because that is the way we were taught to speak. There are many other parts of the English language that make it sexist. Most people see the other aspect of our language to be “male generics” which was stated in the article “Why Sexist
Language Matters” written by Sherryl Kleinman, who teaches sociology courses at the University of North Carolina on gender inequality (Kleinman 1). Kleinman states in her article,” Some of these words refer to persons occupying a position: postman, chairman, freshman, congressman, fireman. Other words refer to the entire universe of human beings: “mankind” or “he” (Kleinman 1).”
This thought was also brought up in another article “De-Sexing the English
Language” written by Linda Napikoski. In Napikoski’s article she explained how Casey Miller and Kate Swift tried to get sex bias removed from our language. They began their efforts in 1972. “Casey Miller and Kate Swift argued that a word such as
“mankind” is problematic because it defines both men and women as male
(Napikoski 1).” Both Kleinman and Napikoski agree that this word is sexist a long with this language.
Another way people tend to look at male generics is that they are natural, which was stated in Anne Pauwels book Women Changing Language. Pauwels states,” The problem is that many speakers feel they are misrepresented in current language use: they are invisible, mainly described in a stereotypical way or only in relation to another group of people (Pauwels 159).” What Pauwels means is that people who believe that using our language in the manner we do may be “natural”, but it’s also still sexist, it still offends people.
In another article “Lingusitic Bias against Women: Sexism in Language” written by Gopal Magar, also explains how the English language is male bias. Magar states,” There are several forms language that help to buttress the idea of male superiority and female deficiency (Magar 1).” Magar uses how it is not common to hear people say woman doctor or lady police just to refer to a female (Magar 1).
Magar’s point in her articl was to explain how,” …the use of man in our conversation obscures the presence and contribution of women, but at the same, it conjures up the images of males (Mager 1).”
Kleinman, Napikoski, Pauwels, and Magar all have the same view in their articles or book. All writers believe that the use of “male generics” is wrong.
Although people see it as a natural way of speaking, it’s more of how the language was made. Women are offended by the usage of this language. Women see themselves as left out or not included. When hearing the word policeman, we do not tend to picture a women police officer standing in front of us; we picture a man in a uniform.
A lot has changed over the years, women use to be treated unequal to me weren’t allowed to get a job, weren’t allowed to be speak unless spoken too, and were classified and known by only the men in their lives. Throughout the years women took a stand and became more equal to men. It’s time for society to take a stand and make our language not so male dominate. Work Cited
Kleinman, Sherryl. "Why Sexist Language Matters." AlterNet. (2007). Web. 16 Feb.
2014.
The article "Why Sexist Language Matters" written by Sherryl Kleinman is about sexist language and why people need to be aware of it. Kleinman gives lots of examples using different words. She explains how women have come to turn not to be offended by these turns, yet they should be.
Mackinnon, Catharine. Only Words. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993.
Print.
Only Words written by Catharine Mackinnon is about the discrimination of race and sex. Mackinnon makes many points that language doesn't only have to be sexist and racist it is also discriminate. She gives examples of key events that deal with sexual harassment along with examples of racism.
Magar, Gopal. “Linguistic Bias against Women: Sexism in Language”. Academia.edu.
(2011). Web. 24 Feb. 2014
This article “Linguistic Bias against Women: Sexism in Language”
Written by Gopal Magar is about the society and how we speak in a sexist way.
Magar goes into detail about how society has changed and women and men are now almost equal. But our language is not so much equal, and what people are doing to change that. Nevalainen, Terttu. "Journal of English Linguistics." Language and Women's Place in
Earlier English 30.2 (2002): 181-199. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.
"Language and Women's Place in Earlier English" written by Terttu
Nevalainen discusses the different social roles of women. This article goes back in history and explains different theories. It explains many different studies done to show women's role in language.
Pauwels, Anne. Women Changing Language. New York: Addison Wesley Longman
Limited, 1998. Print.
Women Changing Language written by Anne Pauwels is about women around the world trying to change the representation of the sexes in language. It goes back in the later dates when women first brought to the publics attention about language being sexist. This book is a tribute to proving myths wrong about sexist language.
Spender, Dale. Man Made Language. Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd, 1980.
Man Made Language written by Dale Spender is about the english language and how sexist it really is. The book goes into detail about different things in language including, sexism in language, why women prefer to talk to women, and how men are dominant. This book focus on showing how women and sexual context go together.