Sexism in Language in The Curriculum of Ontario Schools:

The existence of sexism in the structure and usage of the English language has recently been extensively documented by linguists, psychologists, feminists, publishers, and others. This awareness of sexism in language has led to numerous suggestions for change, but their implementation has been difficult for the following reasons: (1) alternative proposals were frequently made (e.g., at least 10 alternatives to the use of the masculine pronouns as generics have been proposed); (2) some suggestions contradict each other (e.g., chairman may be retained and contrasted with chairwoman, or chairman may be eliminated from usage and chairperson used for both sexes); (3) misunderstanding of some of the suggestions has occurred (e.g., chairperson has been used in reference to only females, while chairman has been retained for males); (4) a frequent response to some of the suggestions for change has been ridicule, often in the form of overextensions of the original suggestions (e.g., woperson). In this paper, as a first step toward clarifying the inconsistencies, identifying the problems in implementation, and undermining the basis for continued misunderstanding and ridicule, I have categorized the various suggestions regarding changing sexist language according to their underlying rationale. I have identified the following alternative approaches: (1) indirect change, (2) change via circumvention, and (3) change via emphasis on feminine terms. Within these approaches, various alternative strategies for implementation are discussed, and the arguments and research supportive of and critical of the underlying rationales are identified and evaluated. The paper concludes with a recommendation of changes in usage that are suggested by the latter two approaches. The need for further research on the differing psychological effects of those alternatives is noted.

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On Sexism in Language and Language Change – The Case of Peninsular Spanish

Linguistik Online ◽

10.13092/lo.70.1748 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 70 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Benedicta Adokarley Lomotey

Keyword(s):

Language Change ◽

Spanish Language ◽

Language Policies ◽

Feminine Gender ◽

Language Reform ◽

Biological Sex ◽

Sexist Language ◽

Sexism In Language ◽

Peninsular Spanish ◽

The Impact

The Spanish language has been described as a sexist language due to the peculiar characteris-tics of its gender morphology. It is indicated by the o ('masculine') and a ('feminine') gender morphemes which generally represent male and female respectively. This has led to an appar-ent confusion between grammatical gender and biological sex. Against this background, this paper attempts to discover the impact of anti-sexist language proposals on the Spanish language by analyzing sample Spanish newspapers. Of the 40 articles analysed from 20 representative newspapers, findings suggest that although some anti-sexist language elements have been adopted, their usage is erratic and the masculine generics are still used extensively. The results suggest that despite the challenges facing language reform at-tempts, the reinforcement of positive language policies is possible.

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Metaphor of sexism in language

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e559662009-007 ◽

1983 ◽

Author(s):

Reza Ordoubadian

Keyword(s):

Sexism In Language

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Parliament that has inherited its power from the monarch, and in the body of the monarch itself which contains the promises of both God and people. Today, law also finds its sources in the legislative acts of the European Community and the decisions of the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights (religion will often refer to a sacred text). All our understanding is reducible to the ability to comprehend the expansiveness and limits of our language and the cultural boundedness of our language. It was Edward Sapir who most poignantly maintained that the limits of our language are the limits of our world. Over the years of socialisation, ‘ways of seeing’ are developed that are socially constructed by the limits of a particular language. Yet, as language is all around, there is a temptation to see it as a neutral tool, a mirror that tells it ‘like it is’. All language does is to give someone else’s interpretation of their belief, or their experience. It is no more, and no less, than a guide to social reality. What is seen as, or believed to be, the real world may be no more than the language habits of the group. It is, therefore, often a biased view. Languages also have their limits: if language does not have a word for something or some concept then that ‘something’ will not be seen nor that ‘concept’ thought. All language is, however, responsive to what linguists call the ‘felt needs’ of its speakers. Indeed, it is more likely that not only are thoughts expressed in words but that thoughts themselves are shaped by language. An example of felt needs can be given from the vocabulary of weather. Although the English are often said to enjoy talking about the weather, for many decades our essentially mild climate has provided us with the need for only one word for ‘snow’ (that word is ‘snow’!). In English there are several words for cold, but only one word for ice. By contrast, the Aztecs living in the tropics have only one word to cover ‘snow’, ‘ice’ and ‘cold’ as separate words were unlikely to be used. As English speakers, it is impossible to state that ‘cold’ is synonymous with snow. Coldness is a characteristic of snow, but there can be ‘cold’ without ‘snow’. We would not be able to understand how snow and ice could be interchangeable. In English it is not possible for these two words to become synonyms. However, Inuits have many different words for ‘snow’. Words describe it falling, lying, drifting, packing, as well as the language containing many words for wind, ice and cold because much of their year is spent living with snow, ice, wind and cold. The above is one small illustration of the relationship between living, seeing, naming, language and thought. Language habits predispose certain choices of word. Words we use daily reflect our cultural understanding and at the same time transmit it to others, even to the next generation. Words by themselves are not oppressive or pejorative, but they acquire a morality or subliminal meaning of their own. A sensitivity to language usage therefore can be most revealing of the views of the speaker. For example, when parents or teachers tell a boy not to cry because it is not manly, or praise a girl for her feminine way of dressing, they are using the words for manly and feminine to reinforce attitudes and categories that English culture has assigned to males and females. Innocent repetition of such language as ‘everyday, taken-for-granted’ knowledge reinforces sexism in language and in society. In this way language determines social behaviour. Language, as a means of communication, becomes not only the expression of culture but a part of it. The

Legal Method and Reasoning ◽

10.4324/9781843145103-11 ◽

2012 ◽

pp. 24-24

Keyword(s):

The Body ◽

English Speakers ◽

Language And Thought ◽

Socially Constructed ◽

European Court ◽

Males And Females ◽

Sexism In Language ◽

The Tropics ◽

The Relationship ◽

English Culture

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Sexism in Language and Talk-in-Interaction

10.26686/wgtn.14343995.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Ann Weatherall

Keyword(s):

Conversation Analysis ◽

Social Order ◽

Sexist Language ◽

Sexism In Language ◽

Gender Trouble ◽

Language Issues

© 2015, © The Author(s) 2015. Feminists have long recognised important relationships between language and a gendered social order that disadvantages women. At the establishment of gender and language as a field of academic inquiry, work documented sexism in language—the ways words were used to ignore, narrowly define, or demean women. Using feminist conversation analysis, this article further develops that early work by considering recorded instances of gender and sexism in talk. A broad notion of “gender trouble” was used to identify 50 relevant cases from everyday interactions. Two sexist language issues that were evident in the collection are presented in this article—the derogation of women and participants’ orientations to gender inclusiveness. The analysis contributes to a better understanding of sexism in language by examining how instances of it unfold over turns of talk. The study is discussed with respect to the methodological tensions inherent in feminist conversation analysis.

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Sexism in Language: A Critical Discourse Analysis Perspective

Editon Consortium Journal of Literature and Linguistic Studies ◽

10.51317/ecjlls.v3i1.210 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 194-203

Author(s):

Mary Muindi

Keyword(s):

Discourse Analysis ◽

Critical Discourse Analysis ◽

Social Practice ◽

Interdisciplinary Approach ◽

Critical Discourse ◽

Grammatical Structure ◽

Spoken Discourse ◽

Popular Songs ◽

Sexist Language ◽

Sexism In Language

Language plays a crucial role in perpetuating sexism and gender inequality. The research draws on the Critical Discourse Analysis, an Interdisciplinary Approach to the study of discourse that views language as a social practice, to explore the existence and nature of sexist language in Kamba Popular Songs. Specifically, this study anchored itself on Grice’s Second Theory of Conversational Implicature (1991). The research had two objectives: to investigate sexist implicatures in Kamba Popular Songs and describe sexist inferences in the lyrics. The study used the descriptive research design and purposively sampled eight songs from the ten most popular Kamba bands with the youths. Besides, the research used content analysis to identify the possible sexist expressions classified into implicatures and inferences. Further, the researcher categorized the two linguistic items into negative and positive sexism, and the number of each type was counted up and described. The study concludes that popular Kamba songs project a sexist perception of women. This research recommends eliminating sexist language in both written and spoken discourse because it contains a lexicon and grammatical structure that trivializes and perpetrates biases against women.

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