Alleen Pace Nilsen's View of Sexism in English
Alleen Pace Nilsen began a study of Sexism in American English after returning from a two-year stay in Kabul, Afghanistan. Trying to avoid social issues in her research, Nilsen used the dictionary, as her main source and guide, making note-cards on every entry that seemed to tell something about male and female. She soon discovered that language and society go hand and hand. Furthermore, that the language a culture uses is evident in its values and beliefs. Amore careful look at the English language revealed three main points that Alleen Nilsen elaborates more on.
The first point Nilsen makes is that American culture values woman for their sexiness and men for their success. She finds supporting evidence for that statement with eponyms. In her research she found many eponyms based on the names of famous American men such as Diesel engine, Franklin stove, and Ferris wheel, which honors the man for an accomplishment. Nilsen states that two out of three feminine eponyms relate to a woman's physical anatomy such as Amazon, meaning without breast. To further the credibility of her statement, Nilsen noted her findings from a western trapper's diary from the 1930's. Her most interesting was the trapper's reference to a range of mountains as The Teats, which is now known as The Grand Teatons. Nilsen then wrote to mapmakers and found other breast-related listings such as Nippletop, Little Nippletop, Nipple Mountain, Nipple Peak, and even Mary's Nipple. Nilsen noticed and was surprised to realize how many pairs of words in which the feminine word have sexual connotations while masculine words are connected to a businesslike aura. She illustrates this with the words callboy ...
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...to being single man but yet an unmarried woman is called a spinster or an old maid. When men are doing jobs that often women do, we try to pay men extra by giving them fancy titles for example a male cook is more likely to be called a chef while a male seamstress will get the title of tailor. Other terms that show how negatively we view old women as compared to young women are old nag as compared to filly, old crow or old bat as compared to bird, and being catty as compared to being kittenish. There are no matching metaphors for men.
Nilsen began this study of the dictionary not with the intention of prescribing language change but simply to see what the language would reveal about sexism to her. Sexism is not something that existing independently in American English or in the particular dictionary that she happened to read. Rather it exists in people's minds.
Blatantly sexist laws and practices are slowly being eliminated while social perceptions of "women's roles" continue to stagnate and even degrade back to traditional ideals. It is these social perceptions that challenge the evolution of women as equal on all levels. In this study, I will argue that subtle and blatant sexism continues to exist throughout educational, economic, professional and legal arenas.
The English Language Systematically Degrades and Devalues Women It is often argued that the English language needs to be modernised to keep pace with the rapidly changing societies in the world. One reason for this is many words and their usages are viewed as sexist, in that they are discriminating against individuals based on their gender. In this essay, I shall discuss many factors relevant to the argument that the English language systematically degrades and devalues women. One possible argument in agreement with this statement is that male words and their female equivalents are often asymmetrical in their connotations and implications. For example, pairs of words such as ‘bachelor’ and ‘spinster’, have distinctively different associations: ‘spinster’ has relatively negative undertones, and conjures the image of an aging woman with a dull lifestyle, whereas the word ‘bachelor’ suggests a more carefree, younger man with an exciting and enjoyable way of life.
Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on sex or gender, especially against women and girls. It can be the belief that one sex is more superior to the opposite sex. In this movie, Jean Kilbourne narrates how media perpetrates the idea that the male is superior to the female. She proves her point through presenting examples of how women are altered in advertisements.
In recent years, gender differences have already been one of the most controversial issues in various research. As an important communication tool of mankind, language is inevitably involved in controversies. However, Rachel Rafelman, a Canadian journalist and the author of “The Party Line” express her thought and opinion in her essay. She not only have some great points on what and how women and men are likely to talk, but also have different points on the talking environment. She comes up with facts and fit real and particle examples in her essay to make it understood. Whereas, Ronald Macaulay, a professor of linguistics and the author of “Sex Difference” uses words of novels to argue and promotes them as a cause of reinforce to men’s and women’s stereotypes in his essay. He argues through his whole as rebuttal and gives some examples to oppose the preconceived notion of sex differences. Over all, both Rafelman and Macaulay are the good writer but Rafelman is having upper to prove her essay better organized using her tones as per requirement.
The host of Lexicon Valley podcast, John H. McWhorter, reveals that words referencing women have interesting origins in “Words, for Her” (2018). McWhorter uses song lyrics, a play, a poem, and the Salem Witch Trial transcripts to support his argument. He discusses the origins and histories of words in order to educate people on how words have changed throughout time. Persons interested in etymology would enjoy listening to McWhorter.
It is said that Western civilization had been primarily male dominated and as a result as diminished the feminine. Women’s roles in society have changed drastically over the past decades. While it took much time, progress for women’s rights has blossomed. Influences in civilization have affected view points of the commonly held mores, expectations, and stereotypes which define gender.
In the article, Women Get Interrupted More—Even By Other Women, Robb depicts the sexism towards talking to women in comparison to men. With the aid of the research done by Adrienne Hancock and Benjamin Rubin, the author exposes the truth that, on average, women are interrupted more often even by the same sex, despite the fact that women are "more elaborate in their language". This article held my interest, it was to the point, but with enough details to not generate questions on the integrity. I enjoyed this article as I believe this discriminatory situation, especially in professional settings, is something women should not tolerate, and I am glad this was brought to attention, to hopefully alter the behaviour of people. I noticed immediately
Even after these prejudices were overcome, the education system still maintained sexism in both obvious and subtle ways. Books rein...
Overall, the value of the American Identity is found in literature such as The Awakening, A Streetcar Named Desire, and The Great Gatsby. Different historical events such as the Women’s Suffrage Movements define America as a male driven nation. These few evidences of many provide an explanation of how men came to control a lot of the activity in the nation and its impact. Currently, women are treated with more respect, have equal rights, and can do many of the things that men can do. However, there is still a great amount of gender inequality in many various aspects and it will remain that way because this nation has been male dominated since it’s independence. History and literature are two aspects of our nation’s cultures that have demonstrated the gender inequality and contributed to the strengthening of this male dominated society in the course of time.
You are at an interview, the interviewer says that you are not qualified for the job because of your gender. What would you say? Sexism has caused stereotypes, and harassment in the workforce, and professional sports, therefore people should know more about sexism. Media is a powerful tool of communication, it produces both negative and positive impacts on society.
For the past few weeks in class we have been focusing on the topic of gender and sexism. Gender is what traits an individual identifies with. Sexism is prejudice, stereotyping or discrimination that is typically against women. Through the films Boys Don’t Cry and Courage under Fire we explored how gender and sexism can be a reality and struggle for some every day. The films did a respectable job of showing different versions of sexism. In Boys Don’t Cry we saw sexism against an individual who is transgender and in Courage under Fire we saw a female officer in the military that experienced sexism.
1. My result for hostile sexism was between zero and one, while my score for benevolent sexism was between one and two. My scores were closest to the average female and male in England and Australia for benevolent sexism. However, my hostile sexism was very low compared to all the countries that were listed. My scores surprised me, because I did not expect my benevolent sexism score to be closest to England or Australia. More simply, I did not expect other females and males to have similar scores, so the graphs were shocking. My results were furthest from Cuba, Nigeria, and Syria. My scores for hostile and benevolent sexism were very low compared to average women and men in Nigeria, Syria, and Cuba. I was not surprised by these results, because these countries are known to practice traditional gender roles. In other words, I was not surprised that
Sexism in language takes many forms, though theses may be reduced to 3 types: language ignores, it defines and it deprecates women. Women and girls are hurt both physically and materially by it. Everyda...
... “Women’s Language.” In this “language” she says that women tend to use more color adjectives and more tag questions than men because of their uncertainty. Also, she stated that swearing is considered an act of power and it is possible that that is the reason as to why women are not “allowed” to say these words. Even in the Victorian Era, swearing was reserved to men because the rights of women were basically given to their husbands. This is where the “housewife” attributed to women began. Lackoff claimed that “the decisive factor is less purely gender than power in the real world” (1975). Swearing is not only seen as a male attribute but is reserved to people (men) who exert power. In our society, it seems that men believe they are the only ones who should have access to power. Therefore, “women’s language”
Women – beautiful, strong matriarchal forces that drive and define a portion of the society in which we live – are poised and confident individuals who embody the essence of determination, ambition, beauty, and character. Incomprehensible and extraordinary, women are persons who possess an immense amount of depth, culture, and sophistication. Society’s incapability of understanding the frame of mind and diversity that exists within the female population has created a need to condemn the method in which women think and feel, therefore causing the rise of “male-over-female” domination – sexism. Sexism is society’s most common form of discrimination; the need to have gender based separation reveals our culture’s reluctance to embrace new ideas, people, and concepts. This is common in various aspects of human life – jobs, households, sports, and the most widespread – the media. In the media, sexism is revealed through the various submissive, sometimes foolish, and powerless roles played by female models; because of these roles women have become overlooked, ignored, disregarded – easy to look at, but so hard to see.