When I was 7, I asked my friend’s brother how he knew that a dog we’d spotted was a boy (after he’d referred to it as a “he”). He replied that when you didn’t know, you just called it a “he”. At 7, this seemed arbitrary and didn’t sit right. It would take awhile to fully articulate all the wrongness that this presumption implied.
At 7 I had an inkling that there was an underlying sexism and mental laziness that assumed male predominance. Of course, I had no idea how much grief you could get for pushing against the system.
Language is subtle and communicates important ideas. It builds on frameworks we’ve all internalized.
Does the word “man” refer simply to male humans? Or does it, as is so often asserted really imply all people, as in “mankind”, “cavemen”, or “policeman”.
Does this dominance of the masculine reinforce societal bias against women? Is this malecentrism (or really, heteromalecentrism), or are we feminists just making a fuss?
Here’s a clue: if it really weren’t a big deal, people wouldn’t push back against gender neutral language, they’d simply adopt it. Because it’s “no big deal”, right?
Nooooope. Instead, you get an immediate, hostile response that this is just the way it’s always been and that you’re being overly sensitive–you’re being rude by making other people feel uncomfortable by calling them out for using and defending sexist language.
The reality is that people of privilege really dislike it when you threaten that privilege by asserting that you’re, y’know, an equal and deserve to be represented in everyday language. That the defenders are, somewhat less often, women doesn’t mean it isn’t sexist language, it just means that women are also susceptible to internalizing the messages we’ve gotten from day 1 about male superiority.
Obviously, this came up recently. My sister posted a quote from one of her church’s leaders. It was all “man” this and “man” that. I’m so tired of sexist language. I pointed it out… but “ohmygawd… the dictionary says “man” is used to refer to “mankind” as in the whole human race”…
*Eyeroll* I’m also so tired of sexism being the tired trope of the religious. Look, if your religious leaders can’t get with the times and figure out what the problem with referring to all unidentified dogs as “he”, there’s a problem. Your religious leaders are not infallable and above criticism for their sexism (or anything else). Sorry if that sounds rude (for the uninitiated, I’m not sorry, that’s sarcasm).
Jessica
sararosewrites
