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Nov. 17th, 2009 11:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
faded_laceGender stereotypes in colloquial language bother me :/
I know that sounds really stupid, but think about it. A lot of colloquial language is based on gender roles in society. I mean, I use "bitch" as both a feminine and a masculine insult, and call both girls and guys "sluts," so it isn't so bad, but both of those both stem from the same place (and Kayla and I just ranted for about two hours last week about prostitution in America... but I guess that's another rant for another time). But more than that, things that people seriously don't think about. "Girly" and "Manly" are two major descriptive words used in America, not just by teens or slang users but by most of the population using casual speech. Not even touching on the inequality in these terms - women are represented by the term for female children while men are represented by the term for adult males - it builds on the stereotypes people are already forced into by society. The really unfortunate part about it, though, is that there's really no way around it- it sounds pretentious to most people to say "effeminate" and "masculine," and those terms, though less unequal, are still associate certain traits with certain genders. At least with terms like "ballsy" and "pussy," there are un-gender-related slang synonyms like "gutsy" and "chicken," respectively, but it's hard to get around the more general terms. And it pisses me off.
< /rant >
Really, what sparked that is my psych professor, who seems to think that society has little to no influence on gender roles and that it's all biological. Luckily, I'm usually too asleep in that class to be righteous.
...
FSDC in T-4 days.
I know that sounds really stupid, but think about it. A lot of colloquial language is based on gender roles in society. I mean, I use "bitch" as both a feminine and a masculine insult, and call both girls and guys "sluts," so it isn't so bad, but both of those both stem from the same place (and Kayla and I just ranted for about two hours last week about prostitution in America... but I guess that's another rant for another time). But more than that, things that people seriously don't think about. "Girly" and "Manly" are two major descriptive words used in America, not just by teens or slang users but by most of the population using casual speech. Not even touching on the inequality in these terms - women are represented by the term for female children while men are represented by the term for adult males - it builds on the stereotypes people are already forced into by society. The really unfortunate part about it, though, is that there's really no way around it- it sounds pretentious to most people to say "effeminate" and "masculine," and those terms, though less unequal, are still associate certain traits with certain genders. At least with terms like "ballsy" and "pussy," there are un-gender-related slang synonyms like "gutsy" and "chicken," respectively, but it's hard to get around the more general terms. And it pisses me off.
< /rant >
Really, what sparked that is my psych professor, who seems to think that society has little to no influence on gender roles and that it's all biological. Luckily, I'm usually too asleep in that class to be righteous.
...
FSDC in T-4 days.
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