Gender awareness and vocabulary
A number of vocabulary changes are being introduced as a result of the feminist movement and heightened awareness of the sexist nature of some English vocabulary. Work with the following exercises.
Exercise 1.
A modern editor would probably alter these sentences. Replace “male” words with a generic meaning by neutral items.
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1. Three firemen helped put out a fire at a disused warehouse last night. |
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2. A spokesman for the Department of Education provided us with a statement. |
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3. Cleaning lady wanted for house in Priory Street. |
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4. The switchboard is continuously manned even during holiday periods. |
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5. All our airhostesses are fluent in at least three languages. |
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6. Miss Jones is in charge of the Manpower Department of the company. |
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7. Policemen today spend more time in cars than on the beat. |
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8. Brenda’s husband is a male nurse. |
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9. It took a great many man-hours to clean up the stadium after the concert. |
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10. This was a great step for mankind. |
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11. The man in the street has little time for such issues. |
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12. They manhandled the hostage into the van. |
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Exercise 2.
.Make examples of your own using the given words in proper collocations.
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Words |
Meaning/comment |
Example |
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male, female |
used for gender classification in biology
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masculine, feminine |
having qualities felt to be typically male or female
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manly, womanly |
having positive qualities felt to be typically male or female
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virile |
manly (mature, grown-up)
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effeminate |
resembling a woman (used of men, negative)
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mannish |
resembling a man (used of women, negative)
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a tomboy |
a young girl who behaves and dresses like a boy
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a sissy |
a boy who behaves like a girl, or a weak and cowardly person (informal, negative)
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butch |
used of men and women, aggressively masculine in looks and behavior (informal)
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DISCUSSION
1. How would you explain this expression: male words with generic meaning?
2. Why do you think there have been attempts to introduce non-sexist language?
3. Does you native language use male words generically? If so, have there been attempts to change them to avoid sexual stereotyping?
4. Do you think using sex-biased words does affect people’s attitudes to men’s and women’s roles in society?
5. A grammatical problem in this area is the use of he/his to refer to a person of either sex. In the sentence “A government minister may have to neglect his family.” the minister could be a man or a woman. However the use of “his” assumes, perhaps wrongly, that it is a man. How could you rewrite this sentence to avoid this problem?
Read the following articles. Render them in English.