The Social Construction of Gender in Language： a Study of Gender Derogatory Terms

Abstract： gender is not born with but influenced by social context and language is the best way to show how society constructs men and women to be.

Keywords： social construction； gender；language.

1 Introduction

The study on gender language has lasted for hundreds of years and its still a hot topic in sociolinguistics today. Traditional researchers on gender language use deficiency theory and dominance theory and often get an overgeneral result， while recent researchers tend to use social constructionism which seems to be more comprehensive. Linguists used to pay much attention to the natural differences between male and female language and their own properties， fewer focus on how society constructs gender by language.

2 Social Construction of Gender

The social construction of gender theory holds the view that the cause of gender differences is social power construction and arrangement. This kind of transformation of paradigm focuses more on the social construction of identity and social relationship. It holds that in the construction of gender， human beings natural gender will be neglected by society and gender identity and gender language are the results of different contexts.

3 Findings

Simone de Beauvoir pointed in her feminism classic The Second Sex， “One is not born but rather becomes a woman”. That is to say， what a woman should be and what properties she should have are closely related to the construction of society， history， culture and herself. And this is the process of gender socialization.

Any changes in social life， even the tiny change， can reflect in words more or less， because language is the most effective way to communicate in life. Robin Lakoff says in Language and Womans Place that our use of language embodies attitudes as well as referential meanings.

Earlier in 1987， Preston and Stanley found that the most vicious words men could think for a man was that he was not so manly. And no matter men or women， the most vicious words for a woman was that she was mean or slatternly in private life. In the following， the author will analyze some derogatory terms for men and women to find the differences of social construction to men and women respectively.

3.1 Gender derogatory terms in the research of Deborah James

In this part， the author mainly uses data which were collected by Deborah James in University of Toronto. James collected 343 derogatory terms to men and 206 derogatory terms to women and then classified them each into seven groups. Of course， these derogatory terms for men and women are a little overlapped.

The derogatory terms for women are classified as follows： （1） lewdness， （2） undignified， （3） unattractive， （4） mean， （5） stupid， （6） masculinization and （7） sexual apathy. And the derogatory terms for men are classified as follows： （1） mean， （2） stupid， （3） womanlike， （4） flirt with woman， （5） social incompetent， （6） incompetent and （7） weak heart.

From these， the author finds that most derogatory terms to women are related to sexual orientation or sexual competence， while derogatory terms to men are almost related to competence， confidence or achievement. Thus， from the perspective of social construction， the author concludes that the society has the trend to construct women to be chastely or purely， while the man capable and successful.

3.2 Seemingly parallel derogatory terms

Some derogatory terms that people use to abuse others are listed here. People take it for granted that they are equal in usage but they are not in fact.

（1） bitch vs. son of a bitch

We can find that bitch or son of a bitch seemingly point to women or men respectively， but they both insult women actually because the focus of the latter phrase is still on women.

（2） 心機婊 vs. 心機boy

Comparing these two terms， the author finds that ‘心機boy is much cuter than 心機婊. When people say someone is a ‘心機boy， it seems that he is making a joke and they have a very intimate relationship. Sometimes it is even a kind of praise for a mans quick-wittedness.

There is also the same language phenomenon in English. When people call an unmarried man or woman， they call the man bachelor while the woman spinster. Comparing bachelor with spinster， the former one is more commendatory which shows that the man is rich and excellent and the reason why he is still unmarried is that he doesnt want to be. While the latter one is more derogatory which shows that the woman is old and no man loves her.

Therefore， the author finds that the social construction of men is strong and aggressive， whereas women is docile and extremely deferential.

4 Conclusion

Based on the elaborative analysis of some derogatory terms through the social construction theory， the author gets following findings： first， derogatory terms can reflect sexual prejudice in language more clearly because what we criticize for is the property that we hope the others should have； second， the social construction of gender through language is that men should be manly， strong， capable and successful， while women should be chaste， pure， docile and even airhead.

All in all， what men or women become is the result of the social construction. And language is a rather useful way to show this.

References：

[1]James， D.（1998）. Gender-linked derogatory terms and their use by women and men. American Speec.

[2]Lakoff，R.（1973）. Language and woman's place. Cambridge： Cambridge University Press.

[3]西蒙娜·德·波伏娃（1988）。《第二性》。北京：中國書籍出版社。

作者簡介：溫原麗，1993年6月2日出生，女，漢族，山西省太原市人，現就讀于西安外國語大學英文學院2016級外國語言學及應用語言學專業。主要研究方向：應用語言學。