Lesson two from our introduction.

1. Language and Gender
Lesson Two: Language and
thought

2. Last lesson we learnt:
• Historically in our society, men have held
the power. Women have held a subordinate
position and have not had a voice in
society.
• There are still significant problems with
the way women are viewed: as objects, not
worthy of the same pay, as something that
sex should be done to etc
• Language mirrors society: popularity of the
word ‘transgender’ reflects the media’s
interest in it, which reflects society’s
changing attitudes.
Subordinate: something or someone of less importance

3. This lesson we’ll discover:
• Is our language androcentric?
• Does it matter if it is?
• Does our language affect our thoughts
about gender?
• Should we make efforts to change the
language that we use to talk about
gender?
androcentric: having an in-built bias towards men

4. Derogatory language - Stanley
1973:
• 20!
• Would the same be true today?
• 220 English terms for a promiscuous
female
• How many for a man?

5. Derogatory language…
• Almost all terms for women acquire derogatory
meanings over time, whilst most terms for men
retain their original meanings or gain respect:
Master Mistress
King Queen
Sir Madam
Earl Dame
Man Woman
This process is called semantic derogation

6. Lexical asymmetry…
• Roget’s thesaurus
Weakness: feebleness, debility,
impotence, womanly
Cowardice: cry baby, quitter, spiritless,
womanish
Courage: moral fibre, heroism, manliness

7. Androcentric language…built by
men
Read the sheet at
your leisure!

8. It’s not just gender…
The charity Scope raises money to help
people with the condition cerebral palsy.
What did it used to be called?

9. Does it matter?
Gender Socialisation:
Society expects different attitudes and behaviours
from boys and girls. Gender socialisation is the
tendency for boys and girls to be socialized
differently. Boys are raised to conform to the male
gender role, and girls are raised to conform to the
female gender or role. A gender role is a set of
behaviours, attitudes, and personality characteristics
expected and encouraged of a person based on his or
her sex. Language plays a large part in this.

15. What can we do about it?
• Will getting rid of the prejudiced language get
rid of the prejudiced attitudes?
• Will creating new words get rid of the
prejudice?
• And to make it worse… the biased language
makes the situation worse. If the word for a
person ‘suffering from congenital paralysis due
to cerebral impairment’ (a ‘spastic’) is also used
to mean someone who is stupid and worthless,
the word is bound to prejudice people against
CP sufferers.

16. What can we do about it?
• “That’s so gay…”

17. Language and thought
• So that all brings me
to…
• Sapir & Whorf
Does language affect thought? Or does thought
affect language?

18. Language and thought
• Sapir & Whorf largely discredited by
linguists now, but some acceptance of the
‘weak version’ of their hypothesis
• Language doesn’t determine what we think
about, but it does affect our thinking on
some level.

19. Carmichael, Hogan and Walter, 1932

20. In conclusion
• Montgomery 1986
• “Language plays an active and crucial
role in shaping the processes of
representation”

21. This lesson we’ll discover:
• Is our language androcentric?
• Does it matter if it is?
• Does our language affect our thoughts
about gender?
• Should we make efforts to change the
language that we use to talk about
gender?
androcentric: having an in-built bias towards men