actress actoraviatrix aviatorusherette usherpoetess poetwoman engineer engineergirl athlete athleteIf it is important to mark the sex of the person, this couldbe done lexically, for example, we can use the adjectives maleor female.
It was a woman driver who sent me home. (sexist)It was a female driver who sent me home. OrThe driver who sent me home was a woman. (nonsexist)(4) Gender-free words are words including both sexes, such asteacher, officer, people, worker, immigrant, coach, churchmember, leader, grandparent, evening student, employee,testee, engineer, customers, dealer, clerk, civilians,scientist, operator, patriot, person, planner, politician,producer, tutor, writer, chief executive, expert, everybodyand so on. Making the most use of gender-free words can helppeople reduce sexism in the daily life and in the language.
(5) Try to avoid giving examples that are traditionallyregarded as of male or female. For example, usually whenreferring to a lawyer, a statesman or an officer, we use amale name or he as the subject. When referring to a secretary,a nurse or a teacher, we use a female name or she as thesubject. In other words, boxing or football player must bemale, while dishwasher or assistant must be female. We cantackle such problems by using plural forms or otheradaptations. [18] For example,① the lawyer...he -------- lawyers... theythe assistant...she --------- assistants...they② It is a party that held by the officers and their wives.
(sexist)It is a party that held by the officers and theirspouses.(nonsexist)4.3 Coining new corresponding wordsThe gender bias can also be seen in the way that women areaddressed through their social relations to men. The termsMiss and Mrs. indicate the sex and marital status of the womanwhile the term Mr. indicates the sex only. It is unbalancedand unnecessary to specify the marital status of women but notof men.
Since the 1960s,feminists had coined a new word “Ms” tode-emphasize the improper perception of marital status as adefinitive feature of a woman's identity and personality. Thenew term Ms, which is a combination of Miss and Mrs.,functions as an exact counterpart of the term Mr.. Women whoobject to having a title that is marked for marital statushave adopted “Ms”. There are also some other examples, such assalesman and saleslady, housewife and househusband, bride andbridegroom and so on. [19]
But there are some aspects of language that are more resistantto change. For example, the word history comes from Greekroot for such concepts as inquiring, knowing and learning.
Women have pointed out the irony of the word history. Theysay, it has told only “his story". So they created the word“herstory” (a word not recognized by standard dictionaries) toemphasize that women' s lives, deeds and participation inhuman affairs have been neglected or undervalued in standardhistories. However, both linguists and common speakers find itabsurd to change ‘history’ into “herstory”.
4.4 Alternatives to Addressing TermsAddressing terms are very important in our dailycommunication, and gender discrimination certainly has someinfluence on them. In English, there are many addresses usedto look down upon the females. In order to solve the problem,there are some strategies that may help:
Firstly, don’t introduce some female through her husband, e.g.
Jim Green and his wife Helen; Chairman's wife Daisy Brown.
Secondly, don’t use terms which belittle women as wives orotherwise, e.g. the better half, the little woman, the weakersex, the fair sex, dumb blondes, (woman's) libber, and so on.
And the traditional expressions with prejudice such asambitious men and aggressive women, cautious men and timidwomen should try to be avoided.
Thirdly, try not to use the traditional form of address suchas Dear Sir, Dear Gentleman, Dear Madam when writing tosomeone of unknown sex. The following may be useful.
Dear friends of the library Dear Madams and SirsDear Personnel Officer Dear Committee MemberDear Citizen Dear CustomerDear Councilor Dear Agent4.5 The social change of attitude toward womenAs I have said, language is something that society creates andcan also be seen as a mirror of society. If women and men arestill unequal in society then just changing the language willnot really grant equality or make things much better. Languageis not in and of itself a sexist thing. The users of alanguage grant it practical meaning depending on how they viewsociety and according to their values and beliefs.
Both historically and presently marriage status is moreimportant to women than to men because marriage virtuallydetermines how well a woman could live. In the past, women hadlittle opportunities to work outside the home. Furthermore,working out of the home was often considered inappropriate orpresented poor options. As they were unable to supportthemselves, their marriage basically determined how well theywould live. This was demonstrated in Jane Austin’s novel Prideand Prejudice where women dressed up and learned to sing anddance in order to impress a man and find an eligible husband.
These women were in some sense subordinate to their husbands,as their positions and careers took precedence in theirrelationship. As marriage was so important to a woman it isreally necessary to differentiate between Mrs. and Miss. Eventoday, in most families men continue to play a more importantrole. Although many women work outside they still make a lowersalary on average.
Although women today have taken all kinds of careers and haveproven that they can do anything men can do, positions of ahigh rank are still rarely held by women. Therefore it is notstrange that one may think of a man when they hear the word"chairman". This indicates that the main reason behind sexistlanguage is not the language form itself, but our thought thatcomes from social experience. In other words eliminatinglinguistic sexism must happen simultaneously with socialchange. Women must be given the same opportunities as men.
The above are some suggestions on how to avoid sexist languagein English. To some people, especially the male, it seemsquite unnecessary. They take it for granted that the so-calledsexist language is some kind of habit or for the seek ofconvenience but not looks down upon or discriminates againstthe female on purpose. Anyhow, the topic of how to avoidsexist language has become more and more popular among thelanguage and social workers abroad.
5. ConclusionSince human being appeared on the earth, there have beenexisting two different genders-----male and female. On accountof the differences between their physiological features andthe superiority and inferiority in social activities, men andwomen are differentiated from each other in individuality,value, image and status, which give rise to variations intheir language styles and language uses.
Sexism is the systematic mistreatment of women as enforced bythe cultures and the institutions of society. Sexism hasdiminished the societal rights of (mostly) women to exerciseeconomic, political, and personal power. Sexism deniesindividual power, even over your own body. Sexism says thatone gender is superior to another gender in intelligence,strength, and leadership abilities. Sexism, along with otherforms of oppression, is hurtful to every woman no matter whatage, nationality, ethnic group or class she belongs to. Itconditions every woman to be submissive and forces them, bywhatever means necessary, to perform and accept the rolesassigned to individuals in society.
Feminism has been one of the main social movements since the1960s, and there is no doubt that this movement will continuein this century. Its impact is felt in many societies aroundthe world and in many spheres of life. Language was and isseen by many feminists as a powerful instrument of patriarchy.
It is therefore not surprising that language is subject tofeminist scrutiny, which leads to elaborate and detaileddescription of sexist practice affecting language use.
In the previous paragraphs, sexist language use in vocabularyhas been pointed out. However, it is not enough to just pointout the problem. A desire to change the patriarchal and sexistnature of language has been expressed and therefore we shouldbe engaged in various types of linguistic reform or languageplanning. The feminist’s demand for linguistic reform, if weare to be careful in our attempt to understand it, cannot beinterpreted as a demand for purging of certain words,sentences, or statements from the English language. It israther to be interpreted as a demand for halting the use ofsuch words, sentences or statements, either because the use isitself objectionable, or because what the use implies ismorally objectionable. One of the important reasons forfeminist language reform is that linguistic change is seem tolag behind social change, effectively hindering the linguisticreflection of social change.
So, the key to better sexist language in English is lexicalneutralization, eliminating generic pronouns, coining newwords and striving for balanced naming and addressing system.
But the elimination of linguistic sexism lies in socialchange. Only by changing the social structure till one daywhen women and men own really equal status can languageequality be truly achieved. Therefore, linguistic action andsocial action should be taken simultaneously for the purposeof eliminating sexism in language.
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