Sexism in language

By Henry Pineda

Language is a constant part of our lives. Without it, we could not do anything because it is a
way of share, transmit and modifying our reality. Language and context cannot be treated
as separate cases, but it must be taken as a unique piece and we see this when society
modifies the language. For example, think about the number of new words that come when
new elements appear in society, for example, the following verbs: "Facebooking or “Tick-
toking". And because it is difficult to see the relationship between language and context it
is also hard to notice when sexism is present in several ways in our language. Now, if we
analyze what is above and knowing that the language and context constantly modify each
other and that our society is deeply racist and it is a society where machismo still widely
present, then some trace of that characteristics must permeate the language this same
society uses

There are many forms of sexist language, one of them is the generic use of masculine forms
of a speech, and Although the English language does not gender nouns, it still propagates
sexism because there are phrases that show preference to males and they are used every
day. Using phrases such as “you guys” or “dudes” when referring to females, the same
problem happens with the Spanish language, Spanish speakers call groups as male even if
the majority are females, and researching more deeply on the topic, the majority of the
Latin root languages reproduce the same phenomenon. Additionally, exclamations such as
“oh, boy!” or “oh, man” are inclined to males. Then, gendering groups of people may not
seem like a problem because it is common and it feels very normal to hear what is wrong
with saying “hey, guys” to a bunch of women? Try calling a group of men “ladies,” “girls,”
“darling” it will not work and some of them can even feel offended. This is because some
realities promoted by history is that it is insulting to be feminine, but favorable to be
masculine, even bible has a dab of sexism, another way in which language can be sexist is
the tendency of men to interrupt women when speaking, several investigators such as
(Robinson & Reis, 1989), and (Cannon, Robinson, & Smith-Lovin, 2019) affirm this,

We can find sexualism in language when there exists a derogatory or offensive use of
words that are used to refer to women. To understand this even better, we must think of the
forms we might call "miss" or "lady" a woman depending on whether they are married or

single, this does not happen on the other side because we have a single use of "sir" for men.
It is still socially relevant to know whether women “belong” to a man or not. Another case
is that of vocabulary and its expression in dictionaries we might find some curious shreds
of evidence that might support this idea, “Mayoress can be the Mayor's wife, daughter,
friend or whoever he chooses. If the Mayor is female, she will still be called the Mayor and
her husband would be the Mayor’s Consort.” (Council, 2018). There is also sexist language
when we use feminine characteristics or names to attack the masculinity of a man, trying to
create an image of what a man "should be". For example, saying “little girl” to a child who
cries or is afraid of something in an activity. Another example is the use of violent
metaphors to refer to sexual activities “I am gonna eat that girl bro” is a common
expression among men. It is a term that we can hear very often and that is not only used to
express the intention of having sexual relations a person due to their physical
characteristics.

Among the consequences of the presence of sexualism in language my be the invisibility of

women. If only men are mentioned, this makes them more visible and it is assumed that if
someone did something, it is probably a man, unless it is clearly stated that it is a woman.
The invisibility of women in language and society has existed since early edges during
history where women almost do not appear as historical subjects, or having a passive role
and stating that the majority of things were made by men. These social constructions, in
which the use of the generic masculine attributes, are given and at the same time promote
the belief or ideology that women are inferior to men. Then it looks like if women do not
appear in history it is because they have not done anything for history if we do not know
any women who are a scientist it is because they have not been scientists, and like these
examples, we can find more. Continuing to leave a gender out of the discourses of society
and empowering the idea that a gender is better than the other because sexism not only
affect one gender, this situation brings disadvantages to both genders and the urgent need to
recognize the rights and equality of minorities or marginalized groups is now a real case,
some are fighting against discrimination against gender, especially for women who seem to
be more affected.

This perpetuation of sexism in language is not an easy task to eradicate, many times; not
only to detect, since in our societies the linguistic differences seem small and the speakers
are not conscious of putting them into practice. In response to this phenomenon that has
occupied the entire space throw the history, feminist manifestations started to appear, since
feminism is a movement that promotes complete equality between women and men. But
some bad-intentioned people have attempted to tag the feminism as the equivalent of
machismo, which would result in societies in which the dominance of one sex in
comparison with the other would continue to exist. However, nothing further from reality,
the equivalent of machismo is feminism, because some manifestations are no longer
peaceful and the people who join the march (in the majority women) insult man and attack
to men by insulting them and there is only other possible forms of sexism and as I have
already mentioned above, the first function of language is communicating to express our
reality. The problem arrives when it is used in such a way that some individuals are
excluded and treated differently, and the line of knowing if sexist in the language is made
by the society or language makes a sexist society seem to be a blur.
Bibliography
Council, B. a. (2018). The role of the Mayor. London: Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council.

Cannon, B. C., Robinson, D. T., & Smith-Lovin, L. (2019). How Do We “Do Gender”?
Permeation as Over-Talking and Talking Over. Socius, 5, 2378023119849347.
https://doi.org/10.1177/2378023119849347

Robinson, L. F., & Reis, H. T. (1989). The effects of interruption, gender, and status on
interpersonal perceptions. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 13(3), 141–153.
https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00987046