Language's Role In Sustaining Inequality Between The Sexes
Although it is disputed whether language causes sexism or sexism causes certain language, language does play a part in sexism (Wikipedia). Given that the development of society has gone hand in hand with the development of language, it is unlikely that the causation will ever be determined. However, whether language causes sexism or sexism causes certain language, it is clear that language plays a key role in sustaining inequality between the sexes.
At its most basic, language is a system of symbols used by human beings to communicate with each other. However, language is not simply how humans communicate with one another, but also how humans communicate within themselves. Therefore, if language is sexist, then the actions, and even the thoughts, that it describes are sexist (West). For example, words with gender-based connotations imply that the attributes necessary to perform the duties related to those words are limited to only one gender (West).
Language perpetuates inequality in a variety of manners. The most dramatic example of language-based sexism is when gender or sex related words are used in a pejorative manner. Less obviously sexist is when gender-linked words are used to reinforce the idea that masculinity is superior to femininity. Furthermore, there are certain gender-neutral words that have come to be so linked with one sex or another that their use to describe a person of the other gender is preceded by a gender designation. Language also reveals how pairs of words that should be equivalent across genders have lesser connotations for the feminine part of the pair. Furthermore, the gender bias in terminology associated with leaders and rulers perpetuates a bias towards male leadership. The use of male pronouns and nouns to describe people of both sexes tends to marginalize the existence of women in society. Additionally, the manner in which married women and men are referred to, both in titles and in the verbs associated with marriage reveal a society biased towards the idea of women as passive or as property. Even the names given to male and female children demonstrate that men are expected to be strong and virtuous, while women are expected to be decorative and pretty. In addition, grown women are referred to as girls or ladies, rather than as women. Furthermore, the metaphors that are associated with men and women show a tendency to describe men as more substantive and stronger than women. Finally, the sexualizing of women's body parts is rampant in language, with body parts being used in manners wholly inconsistent with their actual use or designation. While any one of these trends in language, on its own, might not do much to foster inequality of the sexes, combined they help shape and create, and, in turn, are shaped and created by, a society that still regards women as less than men.
Gender-based words also play a role in maintaining sexual inequality when used in an insulting manner. For example, some of the most pejorative insults in the English language consist of calling a person a derogatory term for a vagina. Not only is the "p" word one of the ultimate insults that a person can levy towards a man, it has also become synonymous with an absolute lack of courage. Given that women use their vaginas to bring forth life, in what is almost universally recognized as an extremely painful process, the fact that a euphemism for the word "vagina" has become synonymous with the word "coward" indicates how language helps perpetuate sexual inequality.
Furthermore, not only women's body parts, but the very nouns used to designate a female human, are used as insults. For example, the words, "girl" and "lady" are used as labels of inferiority when applied to both men and women, and to "make a man" out of someone is to make them more or better (Bartlett). It is an insult to tell someone, even a woman that she throws like a girl or runs like a girl. It is also an insult to call a person of either sex a "sissy," even though that word was derived from sister (Nilsen). Furthermore, while never-married women are referred to pejoratively as old maids, so are "pretentious and fussy old men" (Nilsen).
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