GENDERLECT

Research Report

Written by Amy Schick

The book Sexism and Language shows sexism through language. This country has made some progress of making women more equal to men and giving them more rights, but the English language is still focused on men. Man is used as the word for the generic human, and many professions are male or female oriented. In this book, sexism is discussed through language and courts, literature, marriage, dictionaries and texts and children's books and elementary teaching materials. Guidelines for nonsexist use of language are also given. I chose to concentrate on two chapters of this book; sexism as shown through the English vocabulary and gender-marking in American English.

In English, animal terms tend to be used for people. Shrew, a mouse-like animal, means a "scolding, nagging, evil-tempered woman" while shrewed means a "keen-witted businessman", according to Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language. Dog is another term that can be both positive or negative. A man can be a lucky dog but a woman is considered a bitch. The term bitch never used to be a bad thing when refering to a female dog, but now kids are taught not to use that word because it is a swear word. Even now I still don't use the term bitch in front of my parents because it has such a negative connotation. I say "witch with a B". Also, the terms vixen and vampire (vamp) have negative meanings for women. This shows how males are considered the "better sex" because all of these terms refer to a promiscuous or nagging woman.

Throughout time, men have been valued for their greater physical strength, therefore they were considered the dominant sex. Since machines have taken almost all physical labor, men and women have been more equal with their intellectual abilities. But, for many years men were seen as better, so the language still shows that. When fathers want their sons to be tough, they tell them to "act like a man." The characteristics of a man are tough, and not showing emotions. Boys learn at an early age not to cry, no matter how upset they are. Calling a boy a woman, or telling him he is acting "girly" would be an insult. Parents think their little girl is cute if she acts like a "tomboy", but they would not encourage their son to play with dolls because that would be too feminine. As a child, I always played sports with the boys in my neighborhood, but they would never have come inside and play Barbies with my girl friends and I. Something I never realized was how many names formerly given to boys are now given to girls. Older names like Jo, Evelyn, Terry and Shirley were examples in the article, but more recently Casey, Leslie and Kelsey have been names given to little girls.

Not all words associated with men are positive though. Words like killer, murderer, robber, rapist and bully are thought of as men. I agree, because I have a hard time thinking of a woman as a rapist. Sexual assaults in my mind are done by males. Even though this isn't true, people tend not to hear about cases of rape brought against women. Men don't seem to see women as violent.

Sex roles are shown through the different words that are masculine and feminine. Examples of masculine words are chairman, congressman, forefather, penmanship, manslaughter. Feminine words are Alma Mater, first lady, maid of honor, grand duchess and motherhood. Masculine words tend to be used for both men and women, but feminine words are strictly female. This shows how sexism continues over to even the language that we use.

In the English language the term gender comes from the Latin word genus, which means "kind." Grammatical gender refers to the three main kinds on language: feminine, masculine and neuter. Supposedly, grammatical gender is separate of sex. Natural gender classifies nouns by biological sex, as male or female. For example, he, she and it are words that are considered natural gender. All languages have separations for male and female words, but in English, even words used for either men or women are masculine. The words people or they are used when refering to a group, but the human population is also refered to as man. For example, consider the words of astronaut Neil Armstrong, "One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." This famous quote shows the sexism in the term mankind.

In English, he is considered generic and can be used in different situations for both men and women. Our language should not have a generic gender, because not every person is male. Women should not be included in the generic man or he. There are many examples given in the book where this occurs, when the situation would have been very easy to simply change the word to people or they.

Even the dictionary definitions of words associated with men and women are the stereotypical definitions. The term feminine, according to the Random House Dictionary of the English Language, includes the definitions weak and gentle. But, the word masculine means manly, virile, strong and bold. These descriptions showhow our culture assumes men and women to be. Even though a woman could be strong and bold, she would never be described as masculine. She would simply be known as a strong, bold woman. No one would call a man strong and bold because it is assumed that a man already possesses these characteristics.

People have recognized that there is a problem with the language, but there hasn't been much success in changing English. Even when people try to correct what they say, it comes across that the group being discussed is female, because if they were men, no effort would be made. The English language just does not have a word for a generic person, unlike other languages. Unfortunately, women are just beginning to rise above the stereotype that has held them down for so many years, but the language does not recognize that.

This book does a good job of showing us how even in the language we use we are being sexist every day. Men and women have never been seen as equal, and as long as our language doesn't change, this inequality will continue. So many aspects of humanity have improved, but the changes in the equality between men and women have been painfully slow. Once this sexism is recognized, hopefully improvements will be made.







Listen to an interview with the author of genderlect, Deborah Tannen

Link to GREG'S title page about genderlect

Link to CAROL'S examples and applications about genderlect

Link to BRANDY'S critique about genderlect

Link to GREG'S links page about genderlect

Look at Inco 234 Theory Workbooks for more information of many different Communication Theories

Look at a research report about Cultural Approach to Organizations. Studying different cultures is similar to the differences between gender. Men and women's conversations are cross-cultural, according to Deborah Tannen.


Source: Bosmajian, Haig. Gershuny, H. Lee. Nilsen, Alleen Pace. Stanley, Julia P. Sexism and Language. Urbana, Ill.: National Council of Teachers of English, 1977.