Language and gender

Gender: social construct giving insights into the structure and organisation of social life; linked to biology (sex) but incorporates cognitive, societal, cultural and psychological qualities that varies from society to society Changes in language to be more progressive: (Cameron, 1995) “Subversive innovation may take various forms, but the most popular is probably verbal hygiene” – an attempt to cleanse the language and divest it of its salient negative connotations - May it hinder effective communication instead? In 2021, Australia National University (ANU) urged staff to use “parent-inclusive language” in accordance with ANU's Gender Inclusive Handbook that offers recommendations to uplift female and gender minority students. The recommendations include, using the term “chestfeeding” instead of “breastfeeding”, “gestational/birthing parent” instead of “mother”, and likewise “non-gestational/non-birthing parent” instead of “father”. This decision by ANU was met with contention when the senate voted to ban the “distorted” gender-neutral language, they argue that while the government “supports the right of individuals to make use of any pronouns or descriptors they prefer… the government will use language in communications that is appropriate for the purpose of those communications and is respectful of its audiences”. Additionally, it was implied that this particular variation of gender-neutral language “dehumanises the human race and undermines gender” with reference to reported incidences of young children feeling stressed and panicked about whether it is okay to use the words boy and girl. The motion has since been passed, resulting in an uproar of anger and disappointment from some citizens who felt that the Senate motion denied the identity of transgender and non-binary people. Gender stereotypes – they reduce and simplify, tend to be directed at subordinate groups (ethnic minorities, women), and tend to be negative - Gender-specific linguistic stereotypes are deeply entrenched and help to establish and maintain rules of feminine and masculine behaviour even if those generalisations fail to reflect social or linguistic reality - Changes in social attitudes towards gender equality and gender roles will be reflected in how language represents gender - English has a huge variety of words for vocal, particularly verbally aggressive women which reflects the social convention that women are supposed to be modest in conduct and language “Karen”, - Women are characterised as emotional, sentimental, dependent, weak, passive, alluring, mysterious, fickle, inferior, neurotic, gentle, muddled, vain, intuitive

Vain – “Bimbo”, “Whore” - Men are viewed as the opposite: dominant, strong, aggressive, sensible, superior, randy, decisive, courageous, ambitious, objective, independent, ruthless Theories of language use based on gender: 1) Deficit theory (Lakoff, 1947) Women play more of a supporting role - Argues that women’s speaking style has denied them access to power - Women’s speech is inadequate, showing uncertainty and hesitancy because of social inequalities between men and women Uptalk: the utterance of declaratives with rising intonation at the end, as if a question was being asked Tag questions: express uncertainty of the declarative it is tagging Avoidance of expletives, the use of hedges and fillers, empty adjectives, high levels of politeness - May not reflect the way women actually use language but it is a representation of how society expects women to speak - Women are socialised into behaving more femininely in a sexist society which systematically strove to keep women subordinated (passing on of subordination from mothers to daughters) - LFs: avoidance of expletives, the use of hedges and fillers, 2) Dominance theory (Fishman, 1983) - Cause being how the hierarchical relations between women and men are constructed and maintained (especially in traditionally patriarchal societies) - Women’s conventional supportiveness is an expected characteristic i.e. women are expected to play the supporting role - Topics raised by men are more likely to be pursued than topics raised by a woman 3) Difference theory (Tannen, 1990) - Views gender as a cultural difference - Argues that women speak and hear a language of connection and intimacy while men speak and hear a language of status and independence 4) Acknowledging diversity - Recognising the importance of difference between men and women, that men and women use language to interact with one another for the purpose of a shared activity - Milroy and Milroy’s network theory, Cameron’s verbal hygiene Theories were crafted against the social and political history of feminism, and attitudes towards women in the 20th century, 3 waves of feminism (Titjen, 2018)

1) 1st wave of feminism: focused on getting the rights for women to vote, have property rights and the right to education 2) 2nd wave: focused on women’s roles and rights in the workplace and in reproductive, sexual and family issues 3) Post-modern feminism: covers different views and beliefs about women’s rights and sees women as individuals as well as part of a group Representation of gender in language: - Symmetry and asymmetry in lexis - Social norm / preference (until recently) to use male generic terms to refer to humanity (“Mankind”, “He”) – increasingly changed to gender-neutral terms in some societies - Semantic change altered some of these terms “Lady” used to mean the mistress of a household or a married woman. Marital status was viewed as a huge part of a woman’s identity and continued to be viewed as such in some places of the world today – Even in the English language, women were required to declare their marital status through their use of honorifics – “Miss” for unmarried women, “Mrs” for married women. It was only recently that a neutral term “Ms” was introduced, restoring the power of women as they are no longer forced to reveal their marital status while men used the neutral term “Mr” all along. Additionally, common collocations for “bachelor” (an unmarried man) are “eligible bachelor” or “bachelor pad” that reflects a positive view of single life for men, that they and their lifestyle is desirable. On the other hand, the label “spinster” is negatively connotated with ideas of loneliness and unwantedness. - Use of gender-marked terms - Marked terms: unusual form of a word or phrase that is usually seen as less powerful - U