Language and Gender Wider Reading

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Daily Mail Article:

·         Students told to ‘use gender-sensitive language, or lose marks’ on essays
·         University of Hull- encourages students NOT to use gender-offensive lang. such as ‘he’ or ‘she’  when describing someone who could be either gender
→   Rise in gender-neutral pronouns such as ‘ze’, however, highly reputable institutions, such as Oxford University are not endorsers- unconventional; goes against tradition
·         Universities go against use of terms such as ‘manpower’ , ‘manmade’, and ‘mankind’
→   All of these words sugg. male gender plays dominant role
→   Universities GO AGAINST Zimmerman and West’s Dominance Theory, and Lakoff’s Deficit
→   Modern values, political correctness= heavily based on equality; juxtaposes with society at time theories were published- 1975

·         ‘Language is ‘highly symbolic’- gender-specific language exacerbates the belief that women play subordinate role: ‘manmade’ symbolises how society is built around male androcentrism: implies women do not play an active role within the patriarchy
·         
CRITICS: Movement labelled as ‘linguistic policing’- perceived to be damaging to the expression  of how students write
→   Used as a  ‘coercive tool to impose a conformist outlook’- suggestion that gender-neutral language is FORCED, students are expected to conform to these established views or suffer a penalty
→   By conforming to majority, individuality in expression is diminished; inevitably arises issues within education institutions

Daily Mail Article

·         Article on Nicola Sturgeon and Theresa May- titled: ‘Never mind Brexit, Legs-it!’
→   Despite being highly influential political figures, focus is diverted from their political authority to their physical appearance
→   Illustrates how, unlike men, society fails to seriously acknowledge women within working environments- especially politics- dictating nature of work---> deficit theory?
→   Focus on legs has highly sexual connotations- association with prostitutes, illustrates how women are subject to sexualisation, often to the pleasure of men- degrading position
→   Exacerbates mistreatment of women, in which they are objectified as male sexual possessions, expressed humorously in the media emph. how publications do not see problem in sexism; sugg. mass audience feels the same

 The Guardian - Gendered language in schools
Suggests gender divide between boys and girls is ingrained in school years, and then exist for the rest of their lives

  • Boys told to 'man up' and 'stop being a girl' when being emotional
    • Emotional weakness is a feminie, deficient quality- NOT social norm for males to be like this
      • Robin Lakoff -1975
  • Girls in the playground told to: "make me a sandwich" for HUMOUR, 
    • sexism is ingrained into male culture from a young age, expectation for females to SERVE; men to COMMAND
  • A-LEVEL SUBJECT DIVIDE- exacerbate pay gap and inequality between men and women
    • Males- facilitating, analytical subjects, e.g. physics and maths --> MANY career opportunities
    • Females- "softer" subjects --> limited career choice
      • Females labelled "lesbians" for choosing male subjects - socially unconventional 



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