What do understand by ‘nonsexist language’

Specific local terms for women used in informal contexts. Below are listed some of the terms that informants volunteered as demeaning to women. The list could be much fuller but is included briefly, not to digress from the focus on academic contexts, but to indicate the continued attitudes toward and associated with derogation of women in these kinds of labelling. They are notable in that they all. Smart Girl-Might be applied to a woman who knows how to manipulate men to get what she wants to secure her future.

She uses her body to purchase her future without being a prostitute. Winer notes that a smartman is worshipped despite his crookedness. Not so the woman. In contrast we have Stupid Girl which applies to a woman who is virtuous and supportive of her male partner; she is an ideal but less of a survivor in the sense of the smart girl.

Some men refer to their wife as my madam; her identity is erased and she is defined by the fact that she is his wife. Originally the term was positive Winer: but in sync with the pattern of progressive derogation of labels for women in the course of time. When the pronoun is changed to the madam it functions as a word of dismissal or scorn, a way of downgrading or cutting down to size of the woman who seeks to control.

Ting — Most commonly identified as an example of sexist language, this term speaks clearly to the continuing objectification of women in a very literal way. Examples include: You eh see that real hot ting over there.

Ah was tacklin a ting. Many terms in common usage patronize women by according them a lower status or defining them inaccurately. The term baby, like the rest, may be a term of endearment used for women by men but is said to diminish them, making them feel patronized.

The male tendency to call a woman whom he does not like by labels like slut, hoe, and skettel is common indeed, and bitch is applied to any woman who antagonizes the man. Interestingly, an unfaithful man may be a dog, but this is almost a statusgiver by comparison with the female-oriented terms. It should be noted that many young male students are often literally tongue-tied when required not to use swear words as well as these kinds of terms.

The following list is by no means exhaustive, but illustrative of the kind of statement to avoid:. You think just like a man. It has been suggested that when one is unsure about the degree of sexism conveyed by the compliment, one should try substituting the opposite sex in the sentence.

This term is what one practices when one is contrivedly not being sexist. It is displayed by people who know what sexist usage is, but do not think it a serious problem. Our own further research within The University has indicated to us that this is a prevailing attitude: language may superficially appear to have a sexist intent but it is incidental and unworthy of mention.

Although reluctant to be seen as sexists, persons reveal their sexism nevertheless by mocking a caricature of non-sexist usage. Given the last example above it is worth mentioning the issue of sexual harassment.

It is now the case that a Sexual Harassment Policy has been worked out over a number of years for this institution. It is considered normative for the Trinidad male to display overtly sexual behaviour towards a woman on the job: for the woman it may be harassment, or irrelevant annoyance at least, but for the man expected familiarity.

When a faculty member is female, care should be taken to address the title holder appropriately. While the name of the male has traditionally come first, and the first name of the female has been omitted e. Mr and Mrs. Devindra Maharaj, this format is now recognized as making the female invisible and would normally be eschewed for inclusion of both names.

Devindra and Professor Nicole Maharaj. Thirteen years ago this sounded awkward but now it is perfectly acceptable. Generally there has been an acknowledged easing of protocols which has made for more fluidity in the use of address forms than was formerly the case. The following list provides some examples of neutral, generic, occupational terms: Example.

Care must be taken to prevent a reintroduction of gender-stereotyping inherent in the use of a masculine high value form and a feminine form that in comparison to the masculine is less highly valued. It is recommended that the form chairperson — or even the more informal chair — be used for both sexes. Visiting Scholar is a useful alternative to Visiting Fellow. The following examples clearly assume that all academics are male; appropriate alternatives are suggested: Example.

Other examples of stereotyping are found in texts which assume that women are always wives and mothers and men breadwinners. One consequence of this is that descriptions of women often focus on their roles as wife and mother,. As noted earlier, sex-role stereotyping works against men as well as women.

Certain negatively-perceived classes of persons are generally assumed to be male e. Here too we must clearly guard against a priori judgements in our thought process. It has been observed that there is a tendency for men to ignore women in a dual sex casual conversation. Biased foregrounding Similar gender-bias is promoted when women are, by their portrayal, perceived to be passive victims whereas men are portrayed as proactive actors occupying centre stage.

Stereotyped gender portrayal of inanimate objects. Although inanimate objects in English are generally described as gender neutral there has always been a curious tendency to label possessions as female, which should be avoided e. She flies like a bird with reference to a privately-owned aircraft. Similarly because of their implicit associations, all gender ascriptions to inanimate objects and abstract concepts is undesirable and should be replaced by the gender neutral it.

By the s feminine suffixes were already less common than they had been 30 years earlier, and in the last 30 years their decline has continued. This is galling, because — ette was often perceived by feminists as the most objectionable of the sexist suffixes.

The reasons for that are to do with the historical meanings of — ette. In use, these —ette words sometimes implied that a thing was small in a metaphorical as well as a literal sense—slight, trivial, of lesser value. The word in question, first seen in print in in the Daily Mail, was suffragette. It was not invented by the women it was used to name. Its members engaged in direct action: they threw bricks, set fires and sometimes assaulted the police. The label suffragette was meant to distinguish these militant campaigners from the more moderate suffragists, who confined themselves to lobbying and peaceful protest.

It was intended to be divisive, and it was also intended to be derogatory. Choosing an —ette word for this purpose was strategic, because it allowed the existing meanings of —ette to be exploited for negative effect. Because — ette was a diminutive, substituting it for —ist was a way of belittling the WPSU women and suggesting that their activities were of little consequence. Because — ette appeared in the names of artificial materials, the new term subtly underscored a common criticism of the militants—that a woman who engaged in criminal violence was so unnatural, she could not be considered truly female.

So, suffragette was meant as an insult. But the women who were its targets refused to be insulted. Instead they embraced the word with pride later they even named their magazine The Suffragette , and found ingenious ways to put a positive spin on the problematic —ette ending. As the historian of English Lynda Mugglestone recounts:. Suffragette was, from the first, a contested term, with supporters of the WSPU using it positively while their opponents continued to use it negatively.

After the battle for the vote was finally won, the word began to lose its negative associations. Today, when almost no one disputes that the cause was just, suffragette is not generally regarded as insulting or demeaning.

It has eclipsed suffragist as the commonest descriptive label for the women involved in the struggle, and for many people it is a positive term, associated with qualities like courage, passion and perseverance. These got off to an unpromising start when, almost a decade after failing to establish suffragette as an unequivocally negative label, their opponents made another, more successful attempt at using -ette to belittle feminists.

All Tilbury is laughing at the Peacettes, the misguided Englishwomen who, baggage in hand, are waiting at Tilbury for a boat to take them to Holland, where they are anxious to talk peace with German fraus over a teapot. In the course of the 20th century, more —ette terms denoting women made their way into English. The earliest, which like peacette were coined during World War I, were munitionette and farmerette.

The s gave us nymphette and jockette as well as patrolette a title apparently used for women employed by certain motoring organizations. Most of these words are not overtly insulting, but they could certainly be called patronizing and trivializing. In these contexts the use of any feminine suffix implies that women are deviations from an assumed male norm; the use of the — ette suffix, in particular, suggests their efforts to emulate men are not to be taken seriously.

The femininity they evoke is immature and unthreatening: more cute, bubbly and fun-loving than competent, serious and powerful. But you might be thinking: how relevant are the judgments of someone who is a a linguist and b over 50?

My reaction to — ette words is undoubtedly coloured both by my knowledge of their history and by my own history as a feminist. Linguistic change is generational: a key reason why the meanings of words change over time is that each new generation of speakers, encountering the words in their own historical context, may draw conclusions about their meaning which do not exactly coincide with the conclusions that were drawn by a previous generation.

Could — ette be making the same kind of journey? Present-day English speakers may not make the old connection with cheap imitation materials, because most of those words have fallen out of use.

Time will tell. The illustration shows some World War I munitionettes in a factory near Luton. Skip to content. Follow Following. Sign me up. Already have a WordPress. Log in now. Areas of Study Catalogue. Our Faculty Faculty Directory. Current Openings. Faculty News. Dean of Faculty Office. Student Research Summer Research Programs. Latest News. Recent Senior Thesis Topics. Support for Projects. Off-Campus Study Programs. Getting Started.

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Here are some examples of ways to avoid sexist language: Generic pronouns: Often the plural can be substituted, or the pronoun may be eliminated altogether. The student is accorded freedom to pursue his own educational interests. The collective Man: Again the plural may be substituted. From the images on the cave walls of Paleolithic man Better: From the images on Paleolithic cave walls