A Study on Sexism in English Language

Abstract: Language is necessary part for human being to communicate in society. Language plays an important role in society. As a mirror reflecting society， language reflects all sides of human society naturally. Sexism is a social phenomenon that discriminates against women by rendering them invisible or trivializing them at the same time that it perpetuates notions of male supremacy. Sexism is a kind of discrimination by one sex against another， especially by males against females. [4](P80) Language sexism also reflects gender discrimination in society. Thus， sexism is inevitably reflected through language. To start with， the thesis mainly analyses the phenomenon of sexism in English language in terms of vocabulary， address term and English proverbs. Then the thesis traces the reasons for the occurrence of sexism in the English language. Language is an part of culture and play an important role in culture. Language has been influenced by culture from the past to the present. It reflects culture and the historical character of a nation. Because the inequality of Historical background， Social roles and status， Physiological factor result in sexism in language. Finally， the thesis focuses on the development and the elimination of gender discrimination in English language. There are some useful ways in eliminating sexism in language.

摘 要：語(yǔ)言是人類社會(huì)交際中必不可少的一部分，在社會(huì)中的地位尤為重要。就像是一面鏡子，自然地反映了人類社會(huì)的各個(gè)方面。性別歧視是通過(guò)呈現(xiàn)輕視婦女或使她們微不足道的同時(shí)卻延續(xù)男性至上的觀念的一種歧視女性的社會(huì)現(xiàn)象。 性別歧視是一種以性別為基礎(chǔ)的歧視，尤其指社會(huì)普遍存在的男性對(duì)女性的偏見(jiàn)。[4](P80)英語(yǔ)語(yǔ)言中也反映了社會(huì)中的性別歧視現(xiàn)象。因而，性別歧視無(wú)可避免的從語(yǔ)言中體現(xiàn)出來(lái)。文章首先從詞匯、稱謂及諺語(yǔ)等方面來(lái)闡述了英語(yǔ)語(yǔ)言中存在的性別歧視的現(xiàn)象；接著又追溯了引起這些歧視現(xiàn)象的原因；語(yǔ)言是文化的必不可少的一部分，并且扮演著非常重要的角色，因此語(yǔ)言的變化由整個(gè)社會(huì)的文化歷史背景、社會(huì)角色地位及生理因素等影響。最后，著力探討了如何改變這種存在于英語(yǔ)語(yǔ)言中的歧視，并且提出來(lái)一些消除語(yǔ)言中性別歧視的方法。

Key Words: sexism; phenomenon; reasons; elimination

關(guān)鍵詞：性別歧視；現(xiàn)象；原因；消除

[中圖分類號(hào)]：H0-05 [文獻(xiàn)標(biāo)識(shí)碼]：A

[文章編號(hào)]：1002-2139(2012)-15-0204-03

1、Introduction

Language is not just a product of society. Instead， it can influence people’s thought and spirit. However， there exists sexism in English language. The English countries which always claim that all man is born equal also have a lot of inequalities. The inequality between men and the women is the one. And this inequality is also reflected in the mirror of language. Sexism in English languages has existed for a long time， which is reflection of the traditional ethics that men are superior to women. However， women are keener than men on social status. British linguist Peter said : “female’s social status is no less firm as male’s and usually lower than that of male’s in our society. Therefore， to women， it may be more necessary to show or guard their social status in language and in other aspects.” With progress of times and improvement of society， more and more women realize that they can also create the same working value as men. With the raise of women’s liberation， and broad spread of mass media， the whole English worlds start a social revolution to eliminate the sexism in the English language. At the beginning of 70s of the previous century， the woman’s right rise in the west， the English worlds start a literal revolution movement to eliminate the sexism， which is more fervent in American. The feminists claimed the equality of men and women. Firstly they start to ask to eliminate the sexism lying in the English language. They fight heavily to change the phenomena of sexism in the English language. [3]Recently the research on gender and language mainly focused on three aspects at home and abroad. (1) The phenomenon of gender difference and sexism in English language. (2) The reasons for gender discrimination in English language. (3) The development and the elimination of gender discrimination in English language. So we should know the sexism language well and gradually adopt several methods to eliminate the sexism in the English language.

2、The phenomenon of gender difference and sexism in English language

At the beginning， we must know what sexism is. Sexism refers to the use of language which devalues members of one sex， almost invariably women， and thus fosters gender inequality. It discriminates against women by rendering them invisible or trivializing them at the same time that it perpetuates notions of male supremacy. According to Webster Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary， the definition of sexism is that prejudice or discrimination based on sex: especially， discrimination against women.[1] One explanation of sexism in American traditional dictionary is that the bias of a sort of gender members to other gender members. In language habit， sexism usually refers to the discrimination against women. In actual life， there are different kinds of sexism phenomenon in language.

2.1 The performance on the vocabulary

2.1.1 The general application of ＂man＂and＂he＂.

The third person pronoun “he” and “man” is widely and generally used in language. Man is not only referring to a grown mankind but also generally refers to the whole human beings; woman only can refer to female but not the whole human beings. For example: Man cannot live by bread alone.(人不能單靠面包生活)。The man in the street(普通人，一般人). [9][P22-23]b) He， his， and him refers to male， but when we don’t know the sex of the person， he， his， and him can generally refer to the whole human beings， which is a rule in English. For example， every student has to make up his own mind. He who laughs last laughs best.

2.1.2 The dependence of women’s language

Referring to the language， male language can be regarded as norm attitude. However， female language can only be regarded as male’s appendix. The phenomena of female as appendix of male also embody in the word-building of geminate nouns. Such as: author/authoress. We found that in the English language when the woman and the man have to use the different forms of the same noun. The masculine words commonly have no mark， namely， the noun itself， while the feminine words usually get mark when adding an affix to the masculine words， which is， having mark. Such as those words steward/stewardess， male/female， hero/heroine， usher/usherette， etc. Maybe the ways of word-building above are just reflecting the bias of people in their sub-consciousness. That is， women have to rely on men and are appendixes of men.[2]

The performance on address term

2.2.1 Intimate address term

In western countries， Male boss can address their female subordinates with some intimate pet name， such as， sugar， darling， sweetie， girlie; Instead， female subordinates cannot use these pet names to address their boss， and female boss cannot call the male subordinates like this .however， stranger or unfamiliar men can address women by pet name， It indicate that female social status be lower than men in Anglo-American society. [6](P74

2.2.2 Name address term

In western， before marriage， women always use the father’s surname， after marriage， they use their husband’s surname， for example， Owning to such customs， Mrs. Bush， the wife of American president and Mrs. Thatcher， premier of Britain can not make an exception. Such as， Jim Green and his wife Helen. Obviously， there existed sexism in Name address term.

2.3 The performance on English proverbs

English language’s discriminations towards women also lie in some proverbs and idioms.

2.3.1 Status

A man of straw is worth of a woman of gold.(稻草男兒抵得上金玉女子)。Man， woman， and devil are three degrees of comparison.(男人、女人和魔鬼三個(gè)等級(jí)分貴賤)[6].These proverbs of male chauvinism mainly reflect lowly and discriminated social status.

2.3.2 Marriage.

“A fair face is half portion(姿色顏，嫁妝半)。Marry your son when you will， your daughter when you can(娶妻不忙，嫁女宜速)[6]。These proverbs reflect that the thoughts of “men are superior to women” and tendency to make women commercialization.

2.3.3 Intelligence

“Long hair， short wit . Woman have long hair and short brains(女人頭發(fā)長(zhǎng)，見(jiàn)識(shí)短)。On the one hand， men claim that innocence is the virtue for women; but when women be obedient and well-behaved， they scold that women have long hair but short wit.

2.3.4 Virtue

“fair woman without virtue is like palled wine.(美女無(wú)德，淡酒一杯)Virtue is faire far than beauty.(美德遠(yuǎn)勝美貌。)” [6][P71-72]

3、The reasons for gender discrimination in English language

Language is an part of culture and play an important role in culture. Language influenced by culture， reflect culture， reflect the historical character of a nation. Because the inequality of Historical background， Social roles and status and Physiological factor result in sexism in language.

3.1 Historical background

In western culture life， the Bible plays a very important role .In the Holy Bible (The Books of The Old Testament): “So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man， and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said， ‘This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman， for out of Man this one was taken.’ ”

Man came to the world first while woman made from one of man’s ribs was created just as a help meet for him. And she was not created until all other animals failed to meet the satisfaction of the man. From the order of the birth， it is obvious to see the different importance of man and woman. And man and woman are not equal at all because woman is only a part of man， which itself is the discrimination against women. From above， the superiority of men and inferiority of women is clearly seen. . As Christianity is such a powerful religion in Western countries， it is unreasonable to deny that this helps to set and consolidate the inferiority of women. [8][P306]

3.2 Social roles and status

For thousands of years， Men and women play different traditional roles in family and society:” the man looks after the house while the woman goes out to work.” It is due to different labor division that leads to different social status. Man holds a leading post. Women’s place was restrained at home for housework and child-care while men worked outside being the breadwinner. Men had dominance over women， and women had to be dependent on men. This was the turning point for women. From then on， in paternal society， slavery society and capitalist society， women had been on the bottom of society. Due to women’s relative physical weakness and lower educational background， they do primarily the low-status， low-paying jobs. Men are stronger than women in terms of physique. This determines that men play a more and more important role in social and economic life. [4](P80)

3.3 Physiological factor

For extended work and life together， people realized that men are tall in stature， strong in muscle and robust in physique. In contrary to men， women are small in stature， weak in physique and have more fat and less muscle than men. In a word， men are stronger than women. This determines that men play a more and more important role in social and economic lives. A man’s job is to work outside but a woman’s job is to stay at home， do the housework and take care of the children. Women are treated as the weaker ones and they realize their own values through their marriages to men. [5]At last， women are lower in status. They have to leech on to men and are dominated by men. Gradually， people begin to discriminate women and think that they are inferior in intelligence. This wrong perspective forms slowly and reflects in language.

4、The development and the elimination of gender discrimination in English language

With the development of society， the women’s liberation movement be in vigorous， people began to realize the importance of the language reform and desexism becomes necessary. Language is not only used to exchange ideas， convey information， but also used to set up and maintain the harmonious relationship between human beings， create and keep the effective communication environment among social members and groups. Any form of sexist language， whether on purpose or not， will probably stand off or offend some social member or group. Language and language use mirror social attitudes and stereotypes and bias.

Then， we should avoided sexist language .The main strategies here to achieve this goal are avoiding the use of generic masculine， changing some naming and addressing terms， coining new words and advocating some neutral words.

4.1Transformation -Sexist Words Transformed into Nonsexist Words

4.1.1 Try best to use the words including both sexes which are nonsexist words， such as immigrant， voter， officer， coach， church-member， salesperson， grandparent， employee， tester， patriot， customer， dealer， clerk， civilian， politician and tutor， etc.

4.1.2 Words with the negative affix “ess， ette， rix and enne etc” must be avoided and must be changed into non-sexist affix: or， an， er or ist. For example， actress→actor， administratrix →administrator， suffragette→suffragist， usherette→usher， comedienne →comedian.

4.1.3 When writing letters， you do not know the addressee’s sex， you’d best not to use the traditional expressions “dear sir， dear gentleman， dear madam，” but to use some job title. For instance: Dear friends of the library， Dear madams and sirs， Dear personnel officer， Dear committee member， and Dear director etc.[7]

4.2 Countermeasures to Eliminate Sexism Caused by the Third Person Pronoun “He’s” General Reference.

4.2.1 Using plural forms to instead of single forms Sexist: When bathing a baby， never leave him unattended. Revised: When bathing a baby， never leave them unattended.

4.2.2 Using we /us/ our rewrite the original sentence Sexist: From each according to his abilities， to each according to his needs. Revised: From each of us according to our abilities， to each of us according to our needs.

4.2.3 Rewriting with the second person pronoun Sexist: No man knows his true character until he has run out of gas， purchased something on the installment plan and raised an adolescent. Revised: You don’t know what your true character is until you have run out of gas， purchased something on the installment plan and raised an adolescent.

4.2.4 Rewriting with passive voiceSexist: One who， when he has the choice of two evils， chooses both?Revised: One who， when given the choice of two evils， chooses both?

4.2.5 Using noun or the synonymy in the context to instead of the third person pronoun Sexist: To find a friend one must close one eye， to keep him， two. Revised: To find a friend， one must close one eye， to keep a friend， two.

4.2.6 Trading off with masculine words and negative words to keep balance， but not mixing the reader 例如：A young child is often persuaded by advertisements to buy what he sees on television. When the child does shopping with a parent， she sees the product on the shelf， remembers it， and asks to have it[7].

5、Conclusion

Equality of the sexes has been regarded as an important symbol of modernization and human civilization. In the world， there have been existing two different genders——male and female. On account of the differences between their physiological features and the superiority and inferiority in social activities， men and women are differentiated from each other in individuality， value， image and status， which give rise to variations in their language styles and language uses. Gradually， various factors lead to cause sexism in language， sexism in language reflects sexism in society. We should know about the sexism well from our daily life， we need to pay more attention to the phenomenon of gender difference and sexism in English language， and try our best to eliminate the sexism phenomenon. Therefore， in order to raise women’s social status， we need to adopt varieties of methods to eliminate sexism in language. As the women’s liberation movement in vigorous， we also believe that women’s status would rise. Therefore， sexism in language would be less and less.

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