Friday, July 11, 2008

Sexism In English: A 1990's Update

By far the essay “Sexism in English: A 1990’s Update” by Alleen Pace Nilsen is my favorite essay in the entire book. Reading this essay really opened up my eyes to the English language and society in general. This is because I can not believe that even today in the 21’st century there are people that believe that woman are worth “less” then men. I was aware that in Afghanistan woman are looked at as inferiors, thus there is a proverb that says “If you see an old man sit down and take a lesson; if you see an old woman, throw a stone.” This statement is sexist to all women.

Alleen found three general statements that she concluded show that the English language is sexist. Her first was, “Woman Are Sexy; Men Are Successful.” All through my life I have heard of women being valued by what they look like, instead of by what they bring to the table. Also, I have heard of cases were women get jobs because of what they look like. It is true that woman have acquired sexual connotations rather then acquiring businesslike connotations. For instance, as Alleen mentions a callboy is someone that calls actors up on stage, on the other hand a call girl is another word for a prostitute.

Another point that Alleen found that demonstrates that the English language is sexist is that, “Woman Are Passive, Men Are Active.” I do not agree with this statement because now a days woman can do anything that men can do. Names play an important role in this factor because, for instance, names like Stella and Esther mean “star” while names like Rex mean “king” and Neil means “champion.” This is proof that not only English language degrades women but that also the world and people have a tendency to belittle women.

The third and last point that Nilsen pointed out was that, “Women Are Connected with Negative Connotations; Men with Positive Connotations.” This I would say is one of the strongest points that Alleen pointed out because it is true that men are associated with positive connotations. For example, this is true in the army. Men that go to the army find themselves doing work that they believe woman should do, but to try and pay the men extra, titles of jobs change. For instance, a waitress who’s a man is known as an orderly. A nurse who is a man is known as a medic, and like this there are many names that change to try and make the men feel better.

It is clear that the English language is sexist, but not only is language sexist, rather people are sexist too. English language is the way it is today because no one has done anything to change it, it is true that it is easier to come up with new words rather then changing the old ones, but I believe that we can do anything, and if language hasn’t changed it’ because we haven’t really done anything to change it. Woman shouldn’t let themselves be degraded nor should they feel less then men, we are equal to them and anything that they can accomplish we can get done too.

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