Language and Sexuality throughout the Decades.

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Cori Middlebrooks

LIN312 (2-3:30pm)

November 26, 2002

Language and Sexuality throughout the Decades

Both language and sex are controversial issues, and they have drastically changed and evolved throughout the decades.  The media has played a considerably large role in this.  Women especially have been portrayed through the media by their language and sexuality.  Since the 1950’s, each decade has brought something new and a little different on screen to represent the outlook people had during that generation towards language and sexuality.

Language and sexuality go hand in hand.  Without language, one would not have sexuality, and without sexuality, one would not have language. This is because these two things are interconnected.  Women often exploit their sexuality through words.  They use language to send out the message they want men (or other women for that matter) to receive.  On the other hand, it can be looked at from the perspective that one cannot have language without sexuality.  This brings about a controversial topic.  

Similar to the question “What came first, the chicken or the egg?” is the question, what came first, language or sexuality?  This issue of gender as performance is discussed in Deborah Cameron’s article, “Performing Gender Identity: Young Men’s Talk and the Construction of Heterosexual Masculinity.” Both linguists, Cameron and Judith Butler, agree that language/speech is a “repeated stylization of the body.”  In other words, as Butler claims in her book, Gender Trouble , we are not ‘feminine’ or ‘masculine’, and those are not traits that we possess.  They are merely effects that are produced by things that we do/the way we act.  

        In the 1950’s, the United States was flourishing.  After World War II, Americans began to settle down, start families, and move into the suburbs.  When people look back on the 1950’s, they think of the square “family value” programs that some actually thought represented reality.  A typical woman in the 1950’s had high societal expectations put on her to become a housekeeper and to raise a family.  The image that the media portrayed of the 1950’s woman was one of innocence.  Family shows and sit-coms such as “Leave it to Beaver” and “Father Knows Best” illustrate how women were viewed.  These shows taught girls to be a good house wife:  have dinner ready for your husband, minimize all noise when he arrives home, make him comfortable, and listen to how his day went.  The women in a majority of sit-coms during this decade spoke in low, soothing, and pleasant voices.  Their language was very delicate and proper.  A sit-com that veered off from this path of your typical suburban family lifestyle was the show “I Love Lucy.”  Lucy was definitely not your typical 1950’s housewife.  She spoke in a very loud and obnoxious voice throughout most of the show, and she was constantly making mistakes.  She was still viewed as innocent though.  These women’s roles were void of sexuality for the most part.  

With the 1960’s came a vast sudden increase of fantasy-themed shows, and along with the fantasies came more sexuality.  The top-rated shows of the time featured martians, genies, talking horses, flying nuns, and a “deserted” island that attracted more tourists than Hollywood.  I think the most drastic change in the shows from the 1950’s to the 1960’s was the lack of children.  Many shows did not even have children in them, and the shows that did featured families that were very different from the traditional families of the 1950’s.  Another change from the 1950’s was the onset of sexuality present in the female roles.  Along with this sexuality came a change in language from the female characters.  The women in shows like “The Adam’s Family,” “Bewitched,” and “Gilligan’s Island” were very in tune with their sexuality and were not afraid to show it.  Morticia Adams spoke very seductively to her husband and many times was the initiator of sexual acts.  That would never have happened in a show run during the 1950’s.

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  Another show that had an ample supply of sexuality was “Gilligan’s Island.”  The three female characters on this show are great examples of how different language and sexuality can be portrayed.  There is Ginger, who used her looks and language to convey her sexual energy.  She spoke very sensually at all times with a soft breathy voice, and the men on the show obviously responded to her use of language.  Then there was Mary Ann, who had a slight resemblance to a character that might have been found on a sit-com during the 1950’s.  Her bubbly voice and tomboy ...

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