Essay on Sexism in Language

While reading “Gender,” an essay by Jack Halberstam, the topic of sexism was brought to the forefront of my mind. It has been brought up more often in conversation in the modern era, issues such as how a few cruel insults pertain to female reproductive anatomy and, in a sense, degrade females and ultimately identify them, as well as femininity, as inherently “bad”. Such a thought stemmed from how Halberstam touches on the “problematic stabilization of the meaning of ‘women’ and ‘female’”: meaning there is no room for argument when it comes to your gender—you’re either a girl or not. You either fit into a strict mold, or you do not.

Sexism is the idea that one gender, predominantly female, is secondary to the other. Now, sexist thinking is the thoughts or actions that a person develops from believing a gender is superior to the other. This often leads to the idea of gender roles which Suzanna Kessler in “The Medical Construction of Gender” on page six explains as the “cultural expectations of one's behavior as “appropriate” for a female or male.” If a person does engage in sexist thinking, they may believe that phrases like, “Girls cry all the time and are way too emotional”, a real phrase a male has said to me, are justified to speak. Andrea Smith, the author of “Heteropatriarchy and the Three Pillars of White Supremacy”, helps explain why our society thinks this way by explaining on page 72 that “In order to colonize peoples whose societies are not based on social hierarchy, colonizers must

In our world there are so people that are being overrated, from their skin color, to how they talk or to where they came from or the way they walk, everything from what people wear to where people come from and their ethnic background. These people are looked down on from the rest of society for just being themselves and doing only what they know to do.  For some, it’s wrong if others do not act just like them and they put them down for it. Stereotypes can be described someone of a certain race, religion, gender, nationality, or other groups. You can see that language, gender, and culture (class and race) does relate to power because men’s have more power than women’s, the way you speak, your

Sexism is defined as prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination, typically against women, on the basis of sex, and is a topic that has been on and off the media throughout the years, becoming more prevalent in the 21st century. Many iconic figures throughout the ages have spoken out for women, people like Mahatma Gandhi, who said “Of all the evils for which man has made himself responsible, none is so degrading, so shocking, or so brutal as his abuse of the better half of humanity; to me, the female sex is not the weaker sex.” Sexism has been around for about as long as the human race, dating back to biblical times and beyond. A woman’s traditional role in the family has been that of the cook, the cleaner, the child raiser, and the gardener.

"Gender Stereotyping in the English Language" written by Laurel Richardson in 2003, Richardson argues people use the English language in such a way that limits, depreciates and ultimately dehumanizes women . Richardson develops and supports this theory by proposing the notion that historically, women have not only been limited by the terms used to describe them, but women are raised to think they must be confined to subservient jobs,  that customarily require less skill. Richardson's purpose through writing this article is to highlight an issue often overlooked, in order to promote the appropriate and equitable use of the English Language. The author intends for this principle to be turned into practice among women, men and children developing linguistic habits.

When we hear the word sexism most minds automatically associate feminine oppression. I began to wonder why that was. Webster defines sexism as “prejudice based on sex; especially: discrimination against women.” After reading this I had to know why that was.

Sexism has always been a major issue for women. It seems that today, everyone has to be careful of what they say and do so as to avoid offending someone. While everyone is busy worrying about extinguishing sexism towards women - which still is an issue that needs to be taken care of, who is concerned with sexism towards men? Sexism is just as much of an issue to men as it is to women.

Sexism is defined as the discrimination and bias towards one gender, that one gender is powerful and righteous compared to the other. Sexism has been the largest barrier between sexes to the point in which cultures as well as religions rely on misogyny to set limitation on women to make men feel more empowered. Sexism rooted about twenty five hundred years ago in which women were considered property to a man. Parents would trade their young women for more wealth. Till this day there has been a very misogynistic view towards how to properly maintain a household. A man is to hold the job in the house and provide for the family while a women stayed home to clean, cook, take care of her

I found that gendered/sexed language, mainly the concept of language as an oppressor, to be helpful in creating a critical gendered lens. Concepts like semantic derogation, semantic imbalance, trivialization, and lack of vocabulary all outline the fact that language is completely gendered/sexed and unequal. Language can be used as a power source, both positively and negatively. It can be used to put others down, whether it’s through the use of derogatory terms or even just through the ways certain people speak and are spoken

When turning on the TV, a car commercial appears with men justifying driving an expensive and powerful sports car by complaining about what females in their lives require. Though women slowly gain economic power, the media never represents them as leaders thus reflecting American culture’s view of women. Sexism prevails in American culture and workforce, teaching sexism while denying its presence. Americans must shift their culture to impede sexism because it oppresses women.

Years later McConnell-Ginet (1989, as cited in McConnell-Ginet, 2011) began to study about language and gender in which it focused on speeches of men and women. Later in 2002, in investigating the characterisation of men and women in language, a study has been conducted that covered the sexism in language (Weatherall, 2002). Thus, the foundation of this research is based on the study of language and gender and its effect on

Alleen Pace Nilsen began a study of Sexism in American English after returning from a two-year stay in Kabul, Afghanistan. Trying to avoid social issues in her research, Nilsen used the dictionary, as her main source and guide, making note-cards on every entry that seemed to tell something about male and female. She soon discovered that language and society go hand and hand. Furthermore, that the language a culture uses is evident in its values and beliefs. Amore careful look at the English language revealed three main points that Alleen Nilsen elaborates more on.

In the fourth session, Kristen Keen talks about gendered language choices and how they affect how people relate in the society. Power based violence and the tendency of blaming victims has been on the rise in the society. The theme of the session is “She’s such a slut! Analyzing our gendered language choices and their impact”. Kristen Keen agrees that there is an increasing gendered language that has both negative and positive connotations and can either have positive or negative effects on how people relate.

1984 by George Orwell depicts a dystopia ruled by constant distortions of history and fact and complete control over the individual's mind. The Inner Party, though they rule society, is always under surveillance and their freedom is restricted. Winston a member of this party rebels through a sexual relationship with Julia, a fellow member. Despite the modern idea of sexual freedom, 1984 has a sexist attitude towards women as it classifies them as the inferior sex through its descriptions of various female characters and their role in life and government.

Gender and language initiate an approach to the study of language use and looks into relations between the meaning and gender. Christie provides a systematic introduction to pragmatic approaches explaining the rules of social language and how pragmatics can be realized be feminist analyses of language’s nature