We’ve Come a Long Way, Guys! Rhetorics of Resistance to the Feminist Critique of Sexist Language

2021 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-84
Author(s):  
Sherryl Kleinman ◽  
Martha Copp ◽  
Kalah B. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Feminist Critique ◽  
Sexist Language ◽  
Gender Neutral ◽  
The Status ◽  
Neutral Language

We provide a qualitative analysis of resistance to calls for gender-neutral language. We analyzed more than 900 comments responding to two essays—one on AlterNet and another on Vox posted to the Vox editor’s Facebook page—that critiqued a pervasive male-based generic, “you guys.” Five rhetorics of resistance are discussed: appeals to origins, appeals to linguistic authority, appeals to aesthetics, appeals to intentionality and inclusivity, and appeals to women and feminist authorities. These rhetorics justified “you guys” as a nonsexist term, thereby allowing commenters to continue using it without compromising their moral identities as liberals or feminists. In addition to resisting an analysis that linked their use of “you guys” to social harms, commenters positioned the authors who called for true generics as unreasonable, divisive, and authoritarian. We conclude with suggestions for how feminists can challenge the status quo and promote social change.

The Question of Conscience in Why am I Doing This?

2021 ◽  
pp. 111-124
Author(s):  
ADEYEMI AMOS ADEGBOYEGA
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
The State ◽  
Modus Operandi ◽  
The Status ◽  
Democratic System ◽  
State Of Affairs

Greatly concerned and obsessed with the state of affairs in the country, literary artists more often than not, call to conscience the sensibilities of their audience, politicians inclusive. Against the prebendal nature of politics which is characterized by different anarchist tendencies in Nigeria, literary artists find justification for their craft as they seek ultimately to re-organize the society and confront its perils. This is the crux of this study. My concern is to rationalize Abubakar Gimba’s Why am I Doing This? banking on the interrogative undertone of the title, a variation from the norm. This interrogative undertone as will be explicated herein questions the rationalities – of the author and the actors in his observations as documented. Four essays from the collection were purposively sampled to demonstrate this. Deploying the literary tool of postcolonialism, this study a critical qualitative analysis submits that Abubakar Gimba laments the anathema and apathy that pervades the Nigerian society despite the professed democratic system of governance. He unveils the hidden and sad truths of modern Nigeria in its raw and naked form. These truths contradict her democracy. It is against this that Gimba hopes for a change in the status-quo and modus operandi of statecraft.

The Millennial/Gen Z Leftists Are Emerging: Are Sociologists Ready for Them?

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 408-427
Author(s):  
Elaine Bell Kaplan
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Gender Inequality ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
The Status ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
New Generation ◽  
Do So

Sociology is being challenged by the new generation of students and scholars who have another view of society. Millennial/Gen Zs are the most progressive generation since the 1960s. We have had many opportunities to discuss and imagine power, diversity, and social change when we teach them in our classes or attend their campus events. Some Millennial/Gen Z believe, especially those in academia, that social scientists are tied to old theories and ideologies about race and gender, among other inconsistencies. These old ideas do not resonate with their views regarding equity. Millennials are not afraid to challenge the status quo. They do so already by supporting multiple gender and race identities. Several questions come to mind. How do we as sociologists with our sense of history and other issues such as racial and gender inequality help them along the way? Are we ready for this generation? Are they ready for us?

On Social Stability and Social Change

2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 360-364 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron C. Kay ◽  
Justin Friesen
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Personal Control ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
System Justification ◽  
Social Stability ◽  
System Justification Theory ◽  
The Status ◽  
System Threat ◽  
Do So

More than a decade of research from the perspective of system-justification theory (Jost & Banaji, 1994) has demonstrated that people engage in motivated psychological processes that bolster and support the status quo. We propose that this motive is highly contextual: People do not justify their social systems at all times but are more likely to do so under certain circumstances. We describe four contexts in which people are prone to engage in system-justifying processes: (a) system threat, (b) system dependence, (c) system inescapability, and (d) low personal control. We describe how and why, in these contexts, people who wish to promote social change might expect resistance.

scholarly journals Female slam poets of francophone Africa: spirited words for social change

Africa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 91 (5) ◽  
pp. 742-767
Author(s):  
Mirjam de Bruijn ◽  
Loes Oudenhuijsen
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Francophone Africa ◽  
Popular Knowledge ◽  
The Status ◽  
Gendered Power

AbstractSlam poets in Africa are part of an emerging social movement. In this article, the focus is on women in this upcoming slam movement in francophone Africa. For these women, slam has meant a change in their lives as they have found words to describe difficult experiences that were previously shrouded in silence. Their words, performances and engaged actions are developing into a body of popular knowledge that questions the status quo and relates to the ‘emerging consciousness’ in many African urban societies of unequal, often gendered, power relations. The women who engage in slam have thus become a voice for the emancipation of women in general.

scholarly journals Studying a Heterogeneous Array of Target Groups Can Help Us Understand Prejudice

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 292-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark J. Brandt ◽  
Jarret T. Crawford
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Perceived Discrimination ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Target Groups ◽  
The Status

Prejudice can be expressed toward a wide array of target groups, but it is often operationalized as being expressed toward a narrower array of groups. By studying a heterogeneous array of target groups, we can draw broader conclusions about prejudice writ large. Here, we describe our research, in which we seek to understand constructs that consistently predict prejudice across a wide array of groups (consistent predictors), as well as constructs that predict prejudice for only some types of groups (inconsistent predictors). For inconsistent predictors, we can also identify the perceived characteristics of the target groups (e.g., status, ideology) that are associated with expressed prejudice. Studying a heterogeneous array of target groups opens up new questions related to morality, cognitive processing, and perceived discrimination but also suggests that prejudice, depending on the group, can be a motivating force preserving the status quo or prompting social change.

Responding to Climate Change Disaster

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 161-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jolanda Jetten ◽  
Kelly S. Fielding ◽  
Charlie R. Crimston ◽  
Frank Mols ◽  
S. Alexander Haslam
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Social Identity ◽  
Disaster Preparedness ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Shared Identity ◽  
The Status ◽  
Identity Based ◽  
Tackle Climate Change ◽  
Post Disaster

Abstract. Climate change-induced disasters (e.g., bushfires, droughts, and flooding) occur more frequently and with greater intensity than in previous decades. Disasters can at times fuel social change but that is not guaranteed. To understand whether disasters lead to status quo maintenance or social change, we propose a model (Social Identity Model of Post-Disaster Action; SIMPDA) which focuses on the role of leadership in the aftermath of a disaster. Looking specifically at climate change-related disasters, we propose that intragroup and intergroup dynamics in both the pre-disaster as well as the post-disaster context affect whether leadership (a) has the potential to mobilize social identity resources to enable social change, or else (b) fails to capitalize on emerging social identity resources in ways that ultimately maintain the status quo. Given the importance of urgent climate change action, we predict that status quo maintenance is associated with post-disaster paralysis. In contrast, social change that is set in train by capitalizing on social identity-based resources holds the promise of greater post-disaster learning and enhanced disaster preparedness when it is focused on addressing the challenges brought about by climate change. We apply this model to understand responses to the 2019/2020 bushfires in Australia. Our analysis suggests that while an emerging sense of shared identity centered on acting to tackle climate change provides a window of opportunity for securing increased disaster preparedness, this opportunity risks being missed due to, among other things, the absence of leaders able and willing to engage in constructive identity-based leadership.

Resisting Complicity

2019 ◽  
pp. 98-119
Author(s):  
Jennifer M. Morton
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Philosophical Dialogue ◽  
Unique Position ◽  
Privileged Position ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Status

This chapter explores the need for strivers to think about their potential complicity within the social structures that make it hard for others who are disadvantaged to succeed. It argues that strivers are in a unique position to improve those social structures because of the skills and knowledge they acquire on the path upward. The field of philosophy tends to attract those who already have a privileged position in society. Consequently, much of the philosophical dialogue concerning justice centers around work written by White, privileged men, even though this is the population that has the least to lose by maintaining the status quo. The intellectual and creative energy that will drive social change will come from those who have the most to gain from the system changing.

scholarly journals Gender Neutral? Revisiting UN Cold War Peacekeeping

2018 ◽  
pp. 110-124
Author(s):  
Martin Ottoway Jørgensen
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Profound Change ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
Gender Neutral ◽  
The Status ◽  
United Nations Peacekeeping ◽  
Modes Of Governance

Scholarship has not explored gender in relation to Cold War United Nations peacekeeping. I argue that this is far more problematic than a cursory glance would suggest. It has, I contend, important implications for UN peacekeeping and peacebuilding projects in the different ‘mission areas’ and their scholarly critiques, thus limiting the potential for profound change in how we go about both. By way of an analysis that begins to explore how gender informed the workings of the first UN peacekeeping operation in its ‘mission area’, I point to ways in which scholars can engage in challenging the status quo by historicising and gendering the undertakings of the UN in its multiple and diverse ‘mission areas’. In doing so, I link neoliberalism to the deeper dynamics of inter-imperial modes of governance, which have never quite faded.

Sexism and Attitudes Toward Gender-Neutral Language

2012 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 113-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oriane Sarrasin ◽  
Ute Gabriel ◽  
Pascal Gygax
Keyword(s):  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Related Language ◽  
Sexist Language ◽  
Gender Neutral ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Sexist Beliefs ◽  
Neutral Language

We examined the relationships between three forms of sexism (modern, benevolent, and hostile) and two components of attitudes toward gender-neutral language (attitudes toward gender-related language reforms and recognition of sexist language) across different contexts. A questionnaire study (N = 446) was conducted among students in the United Kingdom and in two (French- and German-speaking) regions of Switzerland. While we expected to find that all forms of sexism are generally related to negative attitudes toward gender-neutral language, we expected attitudes to be more positive and less related to sexist beliefs in a context in which gender-neutral language is firmly established (the UK) compared to contexts in which the use of gender-neutral language was introduced only recently (the German-speaking part of Switzerland) or is still seldom (the French-speaking part of Switzerland). We found that, across all contexts, modern and hostile sexist beliefs were indeed related to negative attitudes toward gender-related language reforms, while, intriguingly, benevolent sexist beliefs were related to positive attitudes in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Recognition of sexist language was significantly related to modern sexism only. Finally, British students were found to express more positive attitudes toward gender-neutral language (both components) than Swiss students.

Subject-predicate-inversion of Gender-neutral-language: An emancipatory confusion

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-57
Author(s):  
João Romeiro Hermeto
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Philosophy Of Language ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Gender Neutral ◽  
Emancipatory Praxis ◽  
Neutral Language

AbstractIn this paper, I proposed a paradigm shift in Gender-Neutral-Language. The claim, which Gender-Neutral-Language can account for reality grasping and, thus, enable its actualization, is challenged; in place of an abstract reach towards social change, a more concrete emancipatory praxis must arise. Its current emancipatory prerogatives are not confronted from the standpoint of its already-established arguments but a more comprehensive standpoint of language, more specifically, of the philosophy of language.

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