How Women Are Treated in Language
Remember to read thoroughly the “Read Me First” post on this blog before responding to this post. You may discuss any—or a combination—of the following as long as it results in three (3) 5-7 sentence paragraphs.
Be sure to attach your name, and the person's name to whom you're responding, at the beginning of your responses. Comments that do not meet the minimum requirements will be deleted.
Some Questions:
1. In the "Male as Normative" section of her article, Hyde might lead some people to think she is an "extreme" feminist, but is she really? If language is indicative of how and what we think, then what are we truly saying when we append the word "man" to much of our everyday speech, both casual (e.g., "what's up, man?") and formal (e.g., "the death of mankind")?
2. That this society infantalizes women cannot be denied; however, what are some practical (and even impractical) ways that we can use language and the "Infantalizing" section of Hyde's article to cease the practice of turning "women" into "girls"?
3. Hyde distinguishes between a "practical conclusion" and a "Whorfian hypothesis" on p. 73. Of these two which is more likely to be true? Which theory do you subscribe to and why? And, last, answer Hyde's title for that section: "How Important is All This?" Is she just taking far too much issue with this discrepancy in our language use, or are there elements of it that are indeed pejorative, sexist, and misogynistic?
Prof. Ferrante
posted by Garth Ferrante @ 9/24/2006 06:13:00 PM
20 comments
20 Comments:
I agree with th fact that we as a culture view women as inferior to men. Everyone might not agree with this but everyone doesn't haven't to agree with it because it is already a fact. Although I believe that sexism should be eliminated I feel that eliminating sexism in our language is an issue that doesn't muchattention. In a world where there are children starving everday worrying about the way people speak should be the least of our worries. If we want to eliminate sexism we should start by facing the problem head on, and that begins with our children
Jean M.
I believe that there is alot of sexism in the language because we have the mentality that male is the top species, which is understandable since ever since we were younger this has been drill in our brain. In the other hand we have the words like bitch, and mistress that degrate woman. In conclusion I believe that in order for us to change the language, as a female I believe that we should start by degrating each other
Karla Q.
I wanted to correct an error I made earlier "I feel that eliminating sexism in our language is an issue that deosn't need much attetion." Women feuling infantalism by referring to themselves as girls or other terms of that calibor doesn't help their cause as well. If you want to change the way people view you, it would help if you changed the way you view yourself.
Jean M.
I have to agree with Jean in the last comment he made when he talks about "infantalism" it is a step back for women. Now that we know this we should start by changing the mentality of our new generations Karla Q
To Professor Ferrante
The practice of categorizing everyone in the male gender, is a norm mainly in our thought process because this has been instilled in us from childhood. "I also had the children fill in the blank...The children overwhelmingly supplied he for the blank." (74)
Jean Turner
Karla has a good point when she mentioned that "there is a lot of sexism in the language because we have the mentality that male is the top species." But, being the top species was in the past, today women have come a long way. We are capable to doing most of the jobs that men do, including construction trade.
Jean Turner
To Professor Ferrante
From Mary Garcia
In the "Male as Normative" section Hyde had valid points to back up the normative. As a feminist she was showing the ways women are treated in language. This might be a way to get it out to society that even though women are equal to men today, sexism in language hasn't changed. The only way to do this is by changing the way we think. In the normative males are always used as the dominant. Society needs to realize that women have come a long way and sexism in language still exist because of th way we look at it.
Response to Jean
From Mary Garcia
I agree that women are viewed as inferior to men. This all comes from many centuries ago. People were taught that men were above women. They were the ones that had to provide for the family and do things women couldn't. This is where sexism in language stems from. Women today are independent, work,provide for their families and even do things that are said to be only for men. Women have come a long way to let sexism in language become an issue in our lives. Should we start teaching our children the correct way of thinking? Yes, by changing the way people think is the only way we can try to change sexism in language.
Response to Karla
From Mary Garcia
I agree that sexism in language still exist because of the way we're raised and taught that male is the species. As far as the words bitch and mistress. They can be degrateable to women but it's also how there used towards a women. Years ago these words were used with their original meaning. If you read the meaning of these words they meant things that some women actually did. The word bitch for instance means a malicous, spiteful or domineering woman. This things women do at times. In today's society these words are used in other ways that do degrate women. In order for that to change women have to respect themselves so not to be called these degrateable words.
Response to Prof. Ferrante –
Describing Hyde as an “extreme feminist” is cynical and unfair. It takes this type of vision strongly stressing the need to make changes in language by raising questions and challenging the system, as well. Hyde’s article merely pointed out the facts about utilizing male as normative and its affect on civilization. Language as we use it today is both sexist and disadvantageous to women. Continuing to use male as normative is advantageous to that species, which produced men filled board rooms and corporate chief executive officers. While on the other hand, women are portrayed negatively as infantile, girls, babes, bitches and mistresses, which greatly hinder their advancement. We have not reached a reasonable benchmark in our attempt to liberate women or change the gender driven techniques used in language by adding a few new words to the dictionary, never omitting the old negative ones and accepting this ongoing behavior.
P. Sellers-Bradford
In response to the comment about Hyde appearing to be a extreme feminist, I agree when you first read the article it may appear that way. After reviewing the facts that are presented from the english language it is clear that Hyde is not doing nothing but presenting and reviewing facts. The male figure is donminant in the english language.Women will always be presented as shallow, helpless,delicate creatures while the male is presented as strong , powerful,bold and other strong qualities.There can be two words such as Master and Mistress they both mean the same thing but over time the male word master has grow to be more bold and powerful while the female word mistress has turned in to a negative word .
v.t.m.(posted the comment above)
In response to Mary Gracia comment about how words are used "They can be degrateable to women but it's also how there used towards a women".I agree there was an up beat song wrote and performed by hip hop artist Missy Elliot that refered to the word bitch in a postive way. There is a dictionay meaning for a word than there is the personal intreptation of the word. Words should be viewed like a work of art each viewer will see something diffrent. (v.t.m.)
In response to Karla Q. statement "there is alot of sexism in the language because we have the mentality that male is the top species". I agree with this statement since the began of time males have been viewed as the leader. In many religous faith the male was the first to be created by God. Giving them the leader postion by a supeior bean makes them appear to be of higher standards than a woman. Also in many historical document the term man is used which refers to a female but the the word woman was not directly stated in the text. Which by the word woman not being directly stated makes the woman less important than the male.Which over time became the normal way of thinking that man is first and the woman is second. vtm
Response to Mr.Ferrante
I don't think Hyde(the writer of the article)is an extreme feminist, i just think that she was just expressing how she and many other women felt about the sexism in language,i liked how she gave her opinion without disrespecting the other sex, although she compared men to women, and how they were both treated in the language without insulting anyone. I don't think we should append the word man beause without saying the word "man" much of the language won't make much sense,especially that most of us are used to talking that way and it won't be easy to change the way we talk, but what we can do is try to use the word "woman" at least half as much as we use the word man.We can't deny that we can't avoid using the word "man".
Loreen Hanna
Respond to Jean
I absolutely agree with you, in order for people to change how they talk to women, and for language to be used in a positive way towards women, we as women have to stick together and stop calling each other girls or disrespectful names like "bitch","slut"etc, and most important of all is that we have to respect ourselves.We can't disrespect each other and ourselves and expect men to do, people see us the same way we see ourselves. Women have to start caring about each other, but Of course that is a really hard thing to do because there is so much envy and hatred going on between us girls which will make it impossible, most of us girls try to deny it but it's the truth.
Loreen Hanna
I disagree with V.T.M.’s explanation about Missy Elliot’s song detailing pejorative expression about women as okay. In my opinion, music and videos are the newest method of degrading women. The problem is that our children once again are learning about male normative and they are not aware how it impacts their thinking. Many of the rap artists use nudity and derogatory slang in their songs and videos that depict women as bitches and whores. Our youth, in turn, believe they should dress and act in that same manner. Please note that the men in these videos wear lots of flashy jewelry, drive fancy cars and are fully dressed while women bump and grind and “back that thing up” wearing scanty pieces of cloth. Our young females are definitely lowering their standards as a result of our language development.
P. Sellers-Bradford
response to V.T.M
I agree with what you are saying about that men have been known as the strong and powerful ones while on the other hand the women are known as the shallow helpless ones.I gotta say that it has improved a lot from the way it used to be, we're now equal to men, I don't understand why they treat us like we're immature and weak, in fact i think women are way maturer and could be a lot stronger than men, not physically but emotionally.
Loreen Hanna
I agree with Loreen Hanna’s response about not necessarily removing “man” and that most of us talk that way anyhow. However, I must admit that it was a little ridiculous to talk about the woman giving birth in the article and referring to that scenario using “him” in the sentence. Because of the long time that we are programmed to utilize male terms, it seems that it will be impossible to change our habit.
P. Sellers-Bradford
END BLOG SESSION
Post a Comment
<< Home