How Language and Sexism Coincide
Sexism is a large part of society and through the language that we use in everyday life we stimulate the world to remain unchanged. Language can be used to degrade people in many ways and throughout the years it has been used to severely separate male and female genders. The opportunities that have been freely available to men, for as long as can be remembered, have yet to be completely available to women. Women have been looked at as less deserving and this has been largely affected by the way people speak. Men have, for the most part, been looked at for the role that they play in society and how they are the stronger more successful gender. Language plays a larger role than some people realize in how we treat and label the different genders.
For as long as there have been habitual methods between genders there has been gender separation to the extreme. No matter what the situation may be there is almost always a difference in whether you are speaking of a man or a woman. Responsibilities around a household and even to keep a household running, per se, are divided into what a man is supposed to do and what a woman is supposed to be able to do. Dainty jobs are handed directly to the female and, what people say are, more masculine jobs go to the male. Other issues have stemmed from this common practice and have led to greater problems in society.
Using language as a common representative on how one feels and thinks often gets some in trouble. The fact that women have so many names that are used against them with negative, cruel meanings and men have names that are almost always positive is something that has come up in the research of Alleen Pace Nilsen; it is a prime example of how language can be used in a very controversial way.
Sexism has been a major issue that women have been struggling with ever since the mid nineteen hundreds. This is an issue that has ruled the workplace ever since women started...