Transcript To get you thinking….

To get you thinking….
 As
you take your seats, complete the ‘If a
man / woman were a ….’
 Work by yourself for 5 minutes on this
 Compare
your answers with the person
next to you – what conclusions can you
draw about the two sets of lists? Be ready
to feedback one observation you’ve made
about your answers.
Language is used to police
behaviour and enforce men’s
superior place in society woman’s
inferior place in society.
What questions would you want to ask of
this conclusion in order to prove or
disprove its truth?
Put your idea on post it note and keep it
safe.
To begin with, let’s look at naming
conventions

How many different words are
there to refer to a woman? What
can they be called? Divide your
word choices into positive and
negative words.

How would you categorise these
words?

What conclusions can you draw
about how naming conventions
are used in relation to women?
Shirley Russell, Grammar,
Structure and Style, pp.169 - 175

Shirley Russell argues that insulting is a means of
control. She quotes Julia Stanley, who claims that in a
large lexicon of terms for males, 26 are non-standard
nouns that denote promiscuous men. Some have
approving connotation (stallion, stud). In the list of
nouns for women are 220 which denote promiscuity (e.g.
slut, scrubber, tart). All have disapproving connotation.
Equally terms denoting abstinence – like the noun
phrase tight bitch are disapproving. In “Losing Out”
Professor Sue Lees argues that men control female
behaviour by use of such terms, especially slag. Note
that today both dog and bitch are used pejoratively of
women. Dog denotes physical unattractiveness, while
bitch denotes a fault of character.
Listen Write

Now make a note of
three observations
you can make on the
basis of what you’ve
heard.

Let’s compare your
thoughts with the
person next to you.
Robin Lakoff

Edit this linguistic
article. What 5 key
points do you think
Robin Lakoff is
making? Record your
ideas.
Let’s go back to the original hypothesis –
has your question been answered?
Language is used to police behaviour and
enforce men’s superior place in society
woman’s inferior place in society.

Sapir Whorf hypothesis
A hypothesis holding that the structure of a
language affects the perceptions of reality of its
speakers and thus influences their thought
patterns and worldviews.
Do you agree or disagree with this
point of view?
Take 5 minutes to respond to what we
have discussed so far.
 Do you agree that these terms are
patronising and deeming to women?
 Do you think that the English Language,
based on this example, is andocentric?
 Do you think that linguistics like Russell
and Stanley are ignoring the male point of
view?
For next lesson….

Find 7 adverts
involving women and
bring them to next
lesson (it might be
helpful for you to
make a note of which
publication you got
them from.)
To begin with….
 In
your groups collate your advertising
images – how would you categorise these
images into different groups?
 Now
make 5 claims about how women are
being represented
What the sociologists say…
notably Jean Kilbourne, Sut Jhally and Erving Goffman
 The Artificial
look
 Dismemberment
 Commodification
 The feminine touch
 Relative size
 Ritualization of subordination (on the floor,
the kiss, as a child or withdrawn)
Can you make 5 observations
about language use?

Gender identity + gender steroetypes = andocentric
language?

OR

Gender identity + andocentric language = gender
stereotypes?

Sapir Whorf hypothesis
A hypothesis holding that the structure of a language
affects the perceptions of reality of its speakers and thus
influences their thought patterns and worldviews.
Nicknames help girls to get on top
Career girls shorten their names
to be ‘one of the boys’, a survey
revealed yesterday.
They use abbreviations like Jo,
Chris and Sam because they see
feminine names as an obstacle to
success.
Dr Helen Petrie, of Sussex
University, said: ‘They see
possessing male traits as a
positive thing rather than a
negative thing.’
‘Twice as many women as men
actively chose to shorten their
names to things like Nicky, Charlie
or Mel.’
Aggressive
The study also showed that
women with masculine names
were more likely to be tomboys.
Dr Petrie said: ‘They not only see
their names as masculine, but live
up to it by being aggressive,
forceful and independent.’
‘In today’s world maleness is
associated with success,
achievement
control.’ nicknames?
Would boysand
everbeing
adoptinfeminine
Round Robin
You have two minutes to record your
thoughts about the article but from the
perspective of either:
 Lexis
 Semantics
 Pragmatics
Now feedback your thoughts to your group
Let’s go back to the original hypothesis
 Language
is used to police behaviour and
enforce men’s superior place in society
woman’s inferior place in society.
What conclusions have you drawn on the
basis of today’s lesson?