It can be said that from the beginning of time women have Free Essay Example

It can be said that from the beginning of time women have been treated unfairly in society and perceived as the weaker gender both mentally and physically. The bias stretches across politics, work, pay and language. However, in the 21st century women’s use of language, opinions and the second wave of feminism is slowly losing its stigma, becoming more socially accepted rather than filling a negative semantic space.

The generic use of ‘he’ for all ‘man’kind throughout ‘his’tory evidently depicts that the world is perceived from a masculine point of view and how language is manipulated to ostracise women.

Julia Stanley is an advocate for this viewpoint as she stated that women are not linguistically represented in our language which is strengthened by the fact that the male pronoun is used to refer to both genders rather than the more inclusive pronoun ‘they’. She also refers to how women occupy a negative space due to marked terms which is reiterated by Schulz ‘lexical asymmetry’ as adjectives that describe women are pejorative and have assumed negative connotations.

For example: the term ‘bachelor’ is used to describe a single man which has positive connotations of youth and rebellion. However, the label ‘spinster’ is pinned unfairly to a single woman which has negative connotations of loneliness and old age. These gendered discourses give sexist representations of women. Semantic deterioration is present is society which has in turn resulted in a shift that words acquiring more negative associations, e.g. ‘mistress’ becoming more promiscuous. By definition it means a woman in a position of authority which has been mangled by linguistic oppression.

Furthermore, Dake Spender said that the ‘male as norm’ ruling makes male dominance seem more normal and reasonable as the use of male pronouns for everyone makes us begin to classify the world on a premise that the more significant gender is male. She said that it is very difficult to challenge this power dynamic. Stanley’s research also draws attention to that women are not equal to men socially and linguistically. Men are always referred to as ‘Mr’ with no regard to their marital status thus no judgement. Women have ‘miss’ and ‘Mrs’ labels which makes then vulnerable to judgement. This reiterates Spender’s views that society can still be patriarchal. Excluding women from our language can lead to excluding women in society.

However, in recent society the rise of feminism has attempted to change the perceptions of women through language. Thye have tried to create more social movements and reignite the feminist wave. The word ‘slut’ has been used to shame women, but women have changed it around to empower women. So called ‘slut walking’ are being used as a deliberate intervention to challenge words but the impact has been less significant as expected. But the #metoo movement has barrelled forward as record numbers of women seek office and comfort in each other due to shared past unpleasant experiences. This has somewhat allowed some women to find closure by speaking openly about the horrendous abuse they have endured due to the perceived status men feel they have. This match has also introduced the basic terminology of feminism.

To conclude, in the 21st century there is still some bias against women because there is evidently a difference in the way’s women are described. This could have serious negative complications; if this progresses women could be at risk of being treated with a larger bias against them.

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