How can the study of language facilitate our understanding of femininity, masculinity and/or other gender relations?

Authors Avatar

How can the study of language facilitate our understanding of femininity, masculinity and/or other gender relations?

Introduction

The concepts of femininity and masculinity revolve around the understanding of the concept of ‘gender’, which according to Talbot is socially constructed.  She states that ‘people acquire characteristics which are perceived as masculine and feminine.’

The definition of gender is the basis for the differing approaches to language and gender.  One approach is that the language we use constructs society’s views of masculinity and femininity; the alternative view is that society’s views of masculinity and femininity affect the way in which men and women use language.  In this essay I am going to briefly consider both of these approaches and will also consider the suggestion that language study is itself biased in that the focus is placed on ‘women’s language’ and automatically assumes ‘male language’ as the norm.  My main focus will be on how the way men and women use language influences our views of masculinity and femininity but I will also briefly consider how language itself is gendered to portray the power status afforded to masculinity.  

I will begin this essay by considering the view that society’s views of masculinity and femininity are socialised into us as children and affect the way in which we use language. An influential feminist linguist, Robin Lakoff suggested that due to the role of the mother in early upbringing, all children’s first language is ‘Women’s language’ and the differences begin to develop once the child begins school.  This occurs due to the gender segregation that takes place between young children who often choose to play in single sex groups rather than mixed sex. The traditional view of masculinity is that men are more powerful and therefore, the way in which they use language is often deemed to have more authority.  It has been argued that ‘society’s beliefs about women have often affected the research, so that it is not the speaker’s language but their sex that is being judged’.   In other words, because men are seen to be more powerful in society, their language is also seen to be more powerful yet if a women were to use ‘male language’ this would not be as noticed as much as a man using ‘women’s language’.

Following this view, when a child begins to learn language it learns with it the stereotypes that are intertwined into the language and will learn to speak either ‘male language’ or ‘female language’.  

Pamela Fishman discredits the view that women’s language is insecure and hesitant due to socialisation and states:

Join now!

‘The point is that the feelings are not necessarily something women carry around with them as a result of early socialisation.  Rather, the feelings arise in situations where the woman’s attempts at conversation are faltering or failing and they are forced to do considerable work for dubious results’   

Gender in Conversation

I feel it necessary to identify at this point the categories of language, which are defined as ‘women’s language.’ Robin Lakoff carried out a study ‘Language and Woman’s Place’. She classified ‘women’s features’ under headings of:

1. Hedges: phrases like "sort of," "kind of," ...

This is a preview of the whole essay