An Analysis on the Causes of Sexism Phenomenon in English Language

【Abstract】Sexism， broadly speaking， refers to the gender bias. In most cases， such a bias manifests as the discrimination against women， which exists worldwide in all aspects of social life， including linguistic discrimination. For the purpose of exploring linguistic discrimination， this paper is devoted to the study of the causes of sexism in the English language. To start with， the paper analyses the phenomena of sexism in English by means of illustration. Then the thesis traces the reasons for the occurrence of sexism in the English language in three parts： religion reason， social and economic reason， political and cultural reason.

【Key words】Sexism; phenomenon; causes

【作者簡介】華曉宇，長安大學外語學院，碩士研究生，研究方向：英語新聞寫作。

Sexism， broadly speaking， is bias of a certain gender， while such bias usually refers to the discrimination against females. In English， sexism refers to a linguistic phenomenon that some English expressions reflect sexist views about the differences between men and women through the prejudicial use of certain words. This paper is going to provide a systematic analysis on the causes of sexism from regional and social aspects.

1. Religion reason

Sexism in English vocabulary does not exist naturally， but is caused by a certain kind of culture and changes along with the changes of culture. In the western culture， the religious language─ the Holy Bible and traditions have often negatively excluded and discriminated against women. Both in the Old and New Testaments of the Holy Bible， women are often imperceptible. For instance， Jacobs daughters， Rebecca， Lea， Rachel and Dina are not mentioned as the descendants of Jesus ancestors. Even if they are ever mentioned in the texts， they are described as the property of men.

The New Testament of The Holy Bible plainly approved womans attachment to men. “Wives， submit yourselves unto your husbands， as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife， even as Christ is the head of the Church……Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ， so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.” （Ephesians 22-24）

The Lord God created man first and made woman from one of mans ribs. From the order of the birth， it is obvious to know that woman is only part of man， which indeed is a kind of discrimination against woman. Even worse， woman is always related to evils， trouble， sins， and weakness and so on. Holy Bible influences western culture and social values so deeply that it is seen as the origin of sexism in English. Since Christianity is such a powerful religion in western countries， it inevitably helps to set and consolidate the inferior position of women.