Gender and Language

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Recommended: Sexism in the workplace and education

1. Does the articles/websites discuss gender stereotypes in the language? If so what did you learn?
Gendered language is something that is all areas of my life from the day I was born and has continued daily since then. It is around us all the time but most of us don’t really pay much mind to or just don’t see it. I saw it growing up in school and even as a small child. My mom worked inside the house and my father was the bread winner he paid bills as well as did the work needed to be done on the outside of the house. This was the norm for me, yet interestingly enough I preferred working outside of the house unless it was cooking. My dad was the strong firm silent type that showed minimal emotions and my mom was the sensitive loving emotional one.
Neerja and Swati refer to various words in the English language that specifically target women in a not so complementing way, yet the similar word towards a man more of a positive implication. Many words degrade the women while when speaking of a man it’s a good term. (2009). I find it interesting that the word man is in the word woman and yet we are not the same creatures. In school the boys always played the rough sports and the girls would play badminton. Men and women are viewed differently and hopefully one day we can change this through gender conditioning and using gender neutral language. (2013). If a man is an executive secretary that does not mean he is gay nor does it mean that if a woman is an electrician that she is gay. Those specific occupations may tend to have more gays and lesbians in them but they are obviously not exclusive. We need to change our perception and stay open minded in life.
I go to Home Depot often and it seems to always be assumed by the employees ...

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...or girls those are giving our children wrong messages. Boys should be able to express their emotions as girls do. The reason my father never showed much emotion was because that was the way he was raised and was told he was weak if he did. Being his daughter was very difficult because he never expressed anything but anger and would have been nice if I knew how he really felt. We are damaging our children and grandchildren when we don’t allow them to express themselves freely.

References
Dasanti, N. and Swati, R. (2009, November 05). Gendered Language http://www.countercurrents.org/print.html Parminter, G. (2013, March 18). The language of gender. [Video File]. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/n8LHKPaJgG4 Villness, Z. (2013, February 9). How gendered language affects perceptions.
http://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/how-gendered-language-affects-perceptions-0209137

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