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feminine, masculine vocabulary is rarely questioned, yet its usage creates expectations that determine male as the norm, female as the secondary. Verbal descriptions of sex and gender construct, not merely describe. Such construction of belief can be found transmitted through dictionaries. When defining ‘manly’ Webster’s Dictionary says that manly means: …having qualities appropriate to a man: open in conduct bold resolute not effeminate or timorous gallant brave undaunted drinks beer. [Give me a break!!!] For ‘womanly’ one finds: …marked by qualities characteristic of a woman, belonging to attitudes of a woman not a man. Female is defined by the negative of the other, of the male. In this way, sexism pervades the ‘objective’ nature of the dictionary, subordinating the female to the male. Sexist language pervades a range of sacred texts and legal texts and processes. Religion can be and is one of the most powerful ideologies operating within society, and many religions and religious groupings are hierarchically male oriented. The law maintains that the male term encompasses the female. Many religions maintain that man is made in the image of God; woman in the image of man. The female is once removed in both law and religion. Even in the 19th century, English law continued to maintain that the Christian cleaving of male and female meant the subjugation of the female and the loss of her property and identity to the male. English family law was based upon Christian attitudes to family and accounted for the late introduction of flexible divorce laws in the 1950s. Both law and Christianity reflect a dualism in Western society. The power of language is illustrated here. A pervasive sexism is made possible and manifest through language which, therefore, easily carries discrimination. So far, the discussion has centred on the construction of the world by, and through, language as written word. There are different ways of speaking and writing. People use the modes of speaking and writing experience and education notes as the most appropriate. However, language exerts power, too, through a hierarchy given to ‘ways of speaking’; through a hierarchy based on accent as well as choice of, or access to, vocabulary. People often change the way they speak, their accent and/or vocabulary. Such change may be from the informality of family communication to the formality of work. It may be to ‘fit in’: the artificial playing with ‘upper class’, ‘middle class’, ‘working class’, ‘northern’ or ‘Irish’ accents. Sometimes presentation to a person perceived by the speaker as important may occasion an accent and even a vocabulary change. Speakers wish to be thought well of. Therefore, they address the other in the way it is thought that the other wishes or expects to be addressed.
DOI link for feminine, masculine vocabulary is rarely questioned, yet its usage creates expectations that determine male as the norm, female as the secondary. Verbal descriptions of sex and gender construct, not merely describe. Such construction of belief can be found transmitted through dictionaries. When defining ‘manly’ Webster’s Dictionary says that manly means: …having qualities appropriate to a man: open in conduct bold resolute not effeminate or timorous gallant brave undaunted drinks beer. [Give me a break!!!] For ‘womanly’ one finds: …marked by qualities characteristic of a woman, belonging to attitudes of a woman not a man. Female is defined by the negative of the other, of the male. In this way, sexism pervades the ‘objective’ nature of the dictionary, subordinating the female to the male. Sexist language pervades a range of sacred texts and legal texts and processes. Religion can be and is one of the most powerful ideologies operating within society, and many religions and religious groupings are hierarchically male oriented. The law maintains that the male term encompasses the female. Many religions maintain that man is made in the image of God; woman in the image of man. The female is once removed in both law and religion. Even in the 19th century, English law continued to maintain that the Christian cleaving of male and female meant the subjugation of the female and the loss of her property and identity to the male. English family law was based upon Christian attitudes to family and accounted for the late introduction of flexible divorce laws in the 1950s. Both law and Christianity reflect a dualism in Western society. The power of language is illustrated here. A pervasive sexism is made possible and manifest through language which, therefore, easily carries discrimination. So far, the discussion has centred on the construction of the world by, and through, language as written word. There are different ways of speaking and writing. People use the modes of speaking and writing experience and education notes as the most appropriate. However, language exerts power, too, through a hierarchy given to ‘ways of speaking’; through a hierarchy based on accent as well as choice of, or access to, vocabulary. People often change the way they speak, their accent and/or vocabulary. Such change may be from the informality of family communication to the formality of work. It may be to ‘fit in’: the artificial playing with ‘upper class’, ‘middle class’, ‘working class’, ‘northern’ or ‘Irish’ accents. Sometimes presentation to a person perceived by the speaker as important may occasion an accent and even a vocabulary change. Speakers wish to be thought well of. Therefore, they address the other in the way it is thought that the other wishes or expects to be addressed.
feminine, masculine vocabulary is rarely questioned, yet its usage creates expectations that determine male as the norm, female as the secondary. Verbal descriptions of sex and gender construct, not merely describe. Such construction of belief can be found transmitted through dictionaries. When defining ‘manly’ Webster’s Dictionary says that manly means: …having qualities appropriate to a man: open in conduct bold resolute not effeminate or timorous gallant brave undaunted drinks beer. [Give me a break!!!] For ‘womanly’ one finds: …marked by qualities characteristic of a woman, belonging to attitudes of a woman not a man. Female is defined by the negative of the other, of the male. In this way, sexism pervades the ‘objective’ nature of the dictionary, subordinating the female to the male. Sexist language pervades a range of sacred texts and legal texts and processes. Religion can be and is one of the most powerful ideologies operating within society, and many religions and religious groupings are hierarchically male oriented. The law maintains that the male term encompasses the female. Many religions maintain that man is made in the image of God; woman in the image of man. The female is once removed in both law and religion. Even in the 19th century, English law continued to maintain that the Christian cleaving of male and female meant the subjugation of the female and the loss of her property and identity to the male. English family law was based upon Christian attitudes to family and accounted for the late introduction of flexible divorce laws in the 1950s. Both law and Christianity reflect a dualism in Western society. The power of language is illustrated here. A pervasive sexism is made possible and manifest through language which, therefore, easily carries discrimination. So far, the discussion has centred on the construction of the world by, and through, language as written word. There are different ways of speaking and writing. People use the modes of speaking and writing experience and education notes as the most appropriate. However, language exerts power, too, through a hierarchy given to ‘ways of speaking’; through a hierarchy based on accent as well as choice of, or access to, vocabulary. People often change the way they speak, their accent and/or vocabulary. Such change may be from the informality of family communication to the formality of work. It may be to ‘fit in’: the artificial playing with ‘upper class’, ‘middle class’, ‘working class’, ‘northern’ or ‘Irish’ accents. Sometimes presentation to a person perceived by the speaker as important may occasion an accent and even a vocabulary change. Speakers wish to be thought well of. Therefore, they address the other in the way it is thought that the other wishes or expects to be addressed.
ABSTRACT
Sexist language pervades a range of sacred texts and legal texts and processes. Religion can be and is one of the most powerful ideologies operating within society, and many religions and religious groupings are hierarchically male oriented. The law maintains that the male term encompasses the female. Many religions maintain that man is made in the image of God; woman in the image of man. The female is once removed in both law and religion.