The English Language Systematically Degrades and Devalues Women

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.

Anne Fadiman, in her essay The His’er Problem, indicates situations in writing where women do not get equal representation as men. Male writers, like Fadiman’s father, used phrases such as “every writer worth ‘his’ salt” and “Dear Lord and Father of ‘Mankind’” in the context of a world with only males. This world did not exclude women for the reason that women acquire lower positions than men in society, but because people considered “normal” to use the masculine pronoun or nouns to refer to both genders. As a result of the underlying thought that women are less active in playing a prominent role in society, most writers accepted the way of mentioning both male and female using masculine words. In other words, the society’s norm of that period was reflected in the language itself. Literature is created by people who have the social standard in their minds, so it is logical that the language reflects

    In reading this excerpt I discovered many commonly used words I typically overlook as standard, or insignificant, to carry power and social weight . Richardson discusses the idea "woman is always part of man" in the literal linguistic sense, but also allegorically. She writes, historically women have been forced to live under a masculine framework of language with respect to specific occupations one may hold. Fireman, policeman, and mail man are words requiring neutralization, in Richardson's opinion, for gender equality to prevail. Furthermore, Richardson posits doing so will enable children, specifically young girls, to be open-minded regarding the jobs they are capable of doing. I believe it is critically

The article by Sally Raskoff states the current situation of gender and power in society. She states that we currently live in a male dominated society and hence our actions and languages reflect that. Examples of curse words are given to show how they refer to women negatively. This is happening because of male masculinity. According to Sally Raskoff, Males want to be seen as assertive, aggressive, and strong. And in order to show they are those things, they insult other males by referring to them as inferior things, body parts of women they consider to be “dirty”. One way to combat male masculinity is by emphasizing femininity, which is about encouraging women to be more nurturing, caring, mothering, and passive.

In Robin Lakoff’s article “You Are What You Say”, she explores how from a young age, girls are taught to speak daintily. She examines how after they are taught to speak this way, they are let out into a world where soft-spoken people are often thought of as too fragile or indecisive to take on positions of power. Being taught to speak softly essentially sets girls up so that they could never move up in the workplace because they aren’t taken seriously. Lakoff also notes how far ingrained in the English language this misogyny is. Many words that are indicative of females lose their proper meaning without a masculine possessive noun to precede it (such is the case with the words mistress), or have a negative meaning when compared with its male counterpart (like with the word spinster). As a last point, Lakoff mentions how in everyday life, even doing something as simple as grocery shopping, this linguistic double standard still exists. Cashiers tend to call women of any age a name such as “sweetie” or “love”; you’ll never hear a clerk call an adult male something like this.

In the article “Sexism in English,” Allen Nilsen analyzes how the English language is inherently sexist towards women. She highlights hundreds of words in the dictionary that reveal a history of sexism. Many words have a gender bias towards men such as, congressman, spokesmen, or mankind. Analyzing language shows how women are marked to represent a lesser socioeconomic status than men. Titles also mark women a certain way.

The difference between the word woman and girl may not seem vast, but many adult women feel disrespected when referred to as girls. The feminist movement worked hard for active women to be referred to as “women,” never as “girls.” In an article “Women vs. Girl,” by Tabby Biddle, Biddle believed that the term girl was considered

In the age of advanced technology, the media is one of the most reliable sources of information. However that source cannot always be trusted; it can be used as a device to brainwash or influence our society. The media are used to control of what we should see and believe while leaving out the rest of the story; which caused stereotypes of other races and genders. We are facing two of the most sensitive controversies of our advanced society: racism and sexism, which were made even worse by the stereotypes created by the mass media. American people should educate themselves to prevent the further spreading of racism and sexism through stereotype.

Sexism is still embedded in the fiber of contemporary culture. However, to further explore the ways in which sexism is intertwined with culture, it is first necessary to define culture. For the purposes of this investigation, culture refers to the corporate environment and forms of employment, as well as the different entertainment industries and canonical literary texts that are endorsed in schools and the greater society. Although not necessarily a product of culture, this paper also investigates the possibility that there is inherent sexism that manifests through

Sexism in modern life is men receiving a higher salary than women for just being men. The idea that women cannot be strong while being independent is absurd. Society uses harsh language towards women as if the negativity in the words have a neutral tone and meaning, when in fact they represent the very reason why women are still viewed as weaker and dependent upon men. Sexism will not cease to exist unless the degrading of women stops. According to Kakutani’s “The Word Police,” the 1991 edition of the Random House Webster’s Dictionary includes linguistic mutations to avoid sexism, such as the change from “women” to “womyn,” and “waiter” or “waitress” to “waitron.” This shows how some communities have accepted that both genders should be equally treated and

Whether used appraisingly or negatively, the power of language can shape how social groups stand in society. Moreover, derogatory language against women is a commonly-used way of demeaning their value. The first example comes on the first page, as

Additionally, the ineffectiveness of Perdita’s rhetoric furthers Shakespeare’s claim that language does not empower women in the lower-class shepherd’s court. For example, during Perdita and Polixenes’ discussion of flowers, Perdita’s language is unable to persuade Polixenes to agree with her opinions. Perdita states that she “[cares] not/ To get slips of” carnations and gillyvors because they are “nature’s bastards” and are not natural. She continues by asserting that “There is an art which in their piedness shares/ With great creating nature,” explaining her belief that because the flowers are made through crossbreeding, they are unnatural and therefore their beauty is artificial since it is owed equally to nature and the gardener that bred them (IV.4.82-89). However, Polixenes is unconvinced by this claim and instead states that although “nature is made better by no mean,” all means of attempting to improve nature must themselves be natural. Therefore, Polixenes believes, the apparently artificial quality of crossbred flowers “is an art/ That nature makes” and thus “art itself is nature” (IV.4.89-97). Perdita has no response to Polixenes’ view and yields to his argument. This conversation demonstrates that Perdita’s rhetoric in the court of the shepherd is largely unsuccessful and does not empower her or further her opinions in the same manner as the language of Paulina and Hermione does. Overall, Shakespeare conveys his claim that Perdita’s power and influence in the

In other words, the male genitals, or the phallus, are almost idolized in that it is given such power and authority with no discernible reason. This transformation of organ into symbol has no biological origin, yet this biology is the basis needed in order to culturally transform its meaning (Vance 130). There is a cultural importance based on male power, or male dominance that takes root through the male genitals. This can be witnessed through the daily interactions between people and the language used. There are a plethora of euphemisms for the penis, but very few for the vagina. Language for male genitals like “tool”, “sword”, “rod”, “hammer”, to name a few, implies a use for the aforementioned appendage, an active party to any activities that involve it. In contrast, popular euphemisms for the vagina include “axe wound”, “cum dumpster”, “dick shed”, “penis holster”, a selection of crude and demeaning phrases used to exemplify the role of the vagina in contrast to the penis, a passive role. This role of language is an example of the casual power imbalance between men and women, and how Western society views male genitalia and female genitalia. Vance discusses different cartoons that depict simple and lighthearted commentaries on sexual relations, but instead “…uncritically reflected

The fair-sex, the whimsical-sex, the gentle-sex, these are some of the phrases usually used in reference to the female gender. Through the course of history those have been romanticized and accepted as a positive synonym of women; they can be found in an innumerable amount of romantic stories and even in official, governmental, and historical documents. However, the reality is that these phrases constitute nothing more than patronizing, disrespectful appellatives used to rob women of their dignity and diminish their contribution to our society. A clear evidence of said discrimination resides in the fact that the majority of literature and history books are written by male authors. In 2015 the magazine The Slate made a survey of the gender and approach of the history books published for general readers and the results showed a total of 75.8% of male writer. (1) Said discrimination goes farther than just gender; it includes race and ethnicity in the mix and creates a complex compound that fuses together and targets a specific group, in this case the Latin women.

In some cases of feministic criticism, the creator of the text in question didn’t intend to present women in such a way. This is particularly troubling and supports