Jeremiah and Gender

This chapter explores salient features of gendered language and gender performance in Jeremiah from a feminist perspective. At first sight, the book witnesses a patriarchal world of male privilege and female subordination, which is expressed by gendered language and sexualized metaphors. The personification of Jerusalem—Judah as adulterous wife of YHWH and the devastation of her female body—generates horrific images that express the shame and humiliation of its ancient audiences, but are unbearable for postmodern readers. Inspecting some passages more closely, this chapter reveals flaws in this rhetoric of shaming and breaches in gender performance that help to deconstruct an allegedly rigid gender hierarchy and to seek ways to alternative interpretations of the divine-human relationship.

“Leading Many Sons to Glory”: Historical Implications of Exclusive Language in the Epistle to the Hebrews

This study examined Hebrews’ use of gender-exclusive language for the purpose of understanding the author of the Epistle’s perspective on women and their role the religious community. The study used both broader historical research and exegetical analysis to support theological conclusions about Hebrews’ treatment of women. Despite the use of gender-exclusive language, the epistle does not suggest a bias against women. On the contrary, in the author of Hebrews’ hand, gendered language becomes a vehicle for understanding the implications of the gospel message for the Christian community.

The Semantics of Solidarity: Radical Vulnerability and Gendered Language in Elia Barceló’s Consecuencias naturales

In Elia Barceló’s novel, Consecuencias naturales, both protagonists undergo biological interventions that cause them to share some or all of the physical characteristics attributed to a gender unlike the one with which they identify. It also deliberately employs gendered language to mount critiques of the heteronormative societal structures that this language reflects. I argue that the trajectory of the protagonists’ experiences suggests that physical embodiment is not enough to and engage in radical vulnerability with the Other. Instead, radical discursive change is needed to create a mutually understood linguistic paradigm in which both parties may empathize with the other’s positionality and lived experience.

Gendered language and employment Web sites: How search algorithms can cause allocative harm

Research on algorithms and artificial intelligence in the hiring process tends to focus on applicant screening and is often centered on the employer perspective. The role played by intermediaries, such as employment Web sites in the distribution of information about employment opportunities, tends to be overlooked. This paper examines the role of search algorithms on employment Web sites and their retrieval of employment opportunities for job seekers based on gendered search terms. Through a basic algorithm audit of the search engines used by three major employment Web sites active in the Dutch job market, we explore whether their search algorithms neutralize or reinforce gendered language, in case of the latter thereby naturalizing stigmas and pre-existing bias. According to our findings, employment Web sites can cause allocative harm if they repeatedly fail to show all opportunities relevant to job seekers.

“What do they say in Quebec?”

This paper examines how non-binary French-speakers in Quebec express their gender identities in speech. I argue that reformist efforts regarding neutral French should include increased attention to how neutral French is done in informal spoken Quebec French, as I examine how current recommendations based on spelling can fail to be taken up in speech, and how regional varieties can sometimes require different prescriptions. Based on a preliminary field study with eight participants who are part of this community of practice, I find that participants did not use any audible neologisms, such as the ones recommended for writing and for other varieties. Not only did they all use gendered language to refer to non-binary referents, although at a much lower frequency than for binary referents, but they also used gender-avoidance strategies in most cases. I also show that third person clitics seem to be the word category most resistant to neutralization or avoidance for speakers of this variety. I argue that these results point to the development of two distinct systems of neutral French, one for speech and one for writing.