Sexist Language Definition and Examples

Sexist Language Definition and Examples Sexist language refers to words and phrases that demean, ignore, or stereotype members of either sex or that needlessly call attention to gender. Its a form of  biased language. On the surface level, eliminating sexist language from your writing can be just a matter of word choice or making sure your pronouns arent all he and him. Sentence-Level Revisions Look at your pronouns. Have you used he and him throughout the piece? To revise this out, you can use he or she, or maybe, if context permits, pluralize your references to use the cleaner they and their instead of he or she and his or her in one sentence, as it could become awkward, wordy, and cumbersome. For example, When a person sells a car, he or she needs to locate his or her title paperwork could be more smoothly done by revising to plural: When selling a car, people need to locate their title paperwork.   You can also try and revise out pronouns to be articles. You could locate the title paperwork in the example sentence instead of their paperwork and not lose any meaning.  If  you would like practice recognizing and eliminating sexism from writing, see this  exercise in eliminating gender-biased language. Looking for Bias On a deeper level, youll want to look at details of the piece youre writing to make sure that it doesnt somehow portray all scientists as men, for example. In A Canadian Writers Reference, Diana Hacker wrote, The following practices, while they may not result from conscious sexism, reflect stereotypical thinking: referring to nurses as women and doctors as men, using different conventions when naming or identifying women and men, or assuming that all of ones readers are men. Some job titles have already been revised out of sexist usage in our everyday vernacular. Youll probably more often hear the phrase flight attendant nowadays  rather than the now antiquated-sounding stewardess and hear  police officer rather than policeman. And people dont use male nurse anymore, now that nurses of both genders are a common sight in medical settings. Youll want to look at the undercurrents in your writing. If youre writing fiction, youll look at things like, for instance, are the female characters (or male) portrayed as complex people, or are they used just as plot devices, flat as cardboard stand-ups? Examples and Observations Ensuring parity is an important topic. Here are some examples of the many sides  of the issue, including one where satire helps make the point:   Questions and criticisms of sexist language have emerged because of a concern that language is a powerful medium through which the world is both reflected and constructed....Some have claimed that the use of generics (such as mankind to refer to both men and women) reinforces a binary that sees the male and masculine as the norm and the female and feminine as the not norm...(Allyson Jule, A Beginners Guide to Language and Gender. Multilingual Matters, 2008) Language in Context The language as sexist prong of language and gender studies has faded in the last two decades....It was soon realized that a word could not unproblematically be derided as sexist since it could in principle be reclaimed by a given speech community (queer probably being the most famous actual example).( Lia Litosseliti, Jane Sunderland, eds. Gender Identity and Discourse Analysis. Johns Benjamin Publishing Company, 2002).   Sexist Language in The Office Michael: Okay, so what I want to engage us in today is a hardcore discussion about womens problems and issues and situations. Magazines and TV shows and movies portray women as skinny, tall goddesses. Well, look around. Are women like that? No. No, they are not. [Points to Pam] Even the hot ones arent really that skinny. So what does that say? That says that you women are up against it. And it is criminal. Society doesnt care. Society sucks. I dont even consider myself a part of society, FYI, because I am so angry over all of this....Karen: What youre saying is extremely misogynistic.Michael: Yes! Thank you. That was not necessary, but I appreciate it. And it proves my point: women can do anything.Karen: Im saying that youre being sexist.Michael: No, Im being misogynistic. That is insane, Im not being sexist.Karen: Thats...its the same thing.(Steve Carell and Rashida Jones, Womens Appreciation. The Office, 2007)