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| There
are several places where gender and language interface in sociology. |
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| When
sociologists study the process of socialisation, they not only look at
how the biological organism, human individual, becomes human (a learning
process) but also at how society and culture reproduce themselves when
their human biological carriers die. |
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| The
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis suggests that, as we learn a language, our sense
of reality is shaped. Therefore our attitudes of what is masculine
and feminine are taught to us mainly through our process of learning a
language. |
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| Language
then stays as part of culture long after its first speakers die, and its
changes often lag far behind other social changes. |
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| The
word “gender” (which is the social difference between masculine and
feminine) is borrowed from grammar, and is different from “sex” (which
is the biological difference between male and female). |
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| Our
culture has a strong prejudice that these are polar opposites and that
there are only two categories. |
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| Biologically
that is untrue. |
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| We
have people who have an extra Y or X chromosome, and cannot be classed
as either male or female. |
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| Our
variations in genitalia are surprisingly very minimal (when scrutinised
carefully), and even our variations in secondary sex characteristics are
minor compared with the over 99 percent of our physical makeup which is
the same for males and females. |
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| By
using specific drugs we can induce secondary characteristics in individuals,
giving them the alternate characteristics. |
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| Our
language, in contrast, is set up to see these minor differences, male and
female, as polar opposites, and categorise people that if they are not
in one then they are in the other. |
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| Careful
observation of how we speak indicates that men and women use slightly different
tone systems. |
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| Tone
is used in some languages (Chinese and Akan) to vary vocabulary. |
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| In
English, it is used to nuance the formal structure of our sentences. |
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| Men
are more predisposed to use three tones while women tend to use five tones
in their day to day speaking. |
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| This
is a learned difference, and people who are not tone deaf who learn and
practice the language can learn to speak with the alternate tone system. |
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| English,
unlike many other languages, has two words, he or she, but no word meaning
either. |
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| This
is a cultural variable. |
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| My
second language, Akan Twi, has one word “no” meaning both he
and she. |
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| In
English, we cannot use the word, “it,” because that is for non humans. |
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| In
English, I prefer to use the word, “s/he” to overcome that when the
gender is unknown or either. |
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| Amharic,
the main language of Ethiopia, has a feminine (anchi) and a masculine
(anti) form of "you." |
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| Thai
(Siamese) has two different forms of "thank you," depending if the speaker
is male (kop-kun-krap) or female (kop-kun-kaa). |
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| Furthermore,
we can trace many elements of our language which identify feminine characteristics
as second rate, inferior and subservient. |
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| The
gender biases we learn from the time we learn our first language, is often
unconscious, but based on those turns of phrase. |
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| There
are now conscious attempts to remove gender bias from our language practices. |
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| Hurricanes
were once all named with feminine names, but now are male or female (but
ships are still female). |
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| Close
examination of language usage, however, indicates that we still have a
long way to go. |
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. |
...................
2008.03.15