Since the beginning of time, social customs have continuously evolved. Fashion always evolves, art always evolves, and language is no different. This article illustrated to me that we, as a society, are only in the infant stages of the conversation revolving around sex and language. While I was writing this comment, I was initially going to start off by writing "Since the beginning of man" to signify the beginning of human beings on Earth. The statement could be interpreted as "man" being used as a gender neutral term. Or it can be interpreted as ignoring the female gender and their contributions to society. It is clear that we are subconsciously programmed by the language we hear and read on a daily basis. It is important to continue questioning terms that we casually use without thought.
I have always felt something when generally all inclusive things about the human race were identified as "man". The way it completely denied women of a place where they take up space confused me. I think the way we are trying to change that thinking of a sexist language is a great way to change it slowly but it also just confuses me to why it had to start in the first place. My first thoughts of course are anger to all of those who came before us, those men who took dominance over our language. So much so that we have to unlearn the things we have been taught. I know our world is not perfect but I do have some hope for mankind. See, even now "mankind" was the first world I thought of besides the human race. It's engraved in our thinking and although we have started to unlearn these things, some people are so embedded in it that they will not change. They will not change and they will continue to live the lives we were taught to live and then teach that way of living to their children. Until hopefully one day their child or their child's child breaks that change of the way we think. Until they fight against this sexist language, this sexist world. I am a pessimist at the very least and although I am a pessimist I am still hopeful. I do believe we are not just man, we are women, we are anything in between and even nothing at all. As soon as we all unlearn these things and take into consideration of our past and learn from history and stop these repeating cycles of bigotry, sexist, racism, terrorism, maybe then we could finally refer to ourselves as not human, but something else that doesn't glorify the word "man", "men", "male" but rather a word to encapsulate us all.
This article highlights simple changes that can be made in order to include women which are not difficult but the patriarchy has a resistance to equality that is like no other. It mentions using chairwomen as apposed to chairman when talking about a women in that position of power. Normalizing using the correct wordage especially when discussing a woman in that position is not difficult. Recognizing gender is important because we need to normalize women in power so using the correct word is a start. The problem is it's become normal to automatically use "masculine" words even when talking about a woman. The article as touches on using all inclusive language. Now people put their pronouns at the bottom of emails and by their zoom name so there is no excuse to use the wrong pronouns for someone especially doing that repeatedly. There has been an open conversation around the subject of gender fluidity and pronouns and this has become very important within our society. The last section of the article shocked me when talking about the language used to describe rape survivors. The media described children as "having sex with" rather than being "raped" is disgusting language use for people who should be highly educated. I think we find this misogynistic language everywhere including to describe men and women doing the same action. For example, when Serena William broke her racket at a game, the media reported it as her having a tantrum and letting her emotions get the best of her because she's a woman. Men, when they break their rackets, (which has happened several times throughout history) are seen as passionate. I think this stems from the idea that women are seen as maternal, so any actions/words used by women that are seen as "masculine" are automatically criticized.
I don't think its a huge surprise that sexism is still greatly present even in today's society. It really depends on how you actually present your words when saying things. For example, sometimes the media takes the more masculine routine and instead of acknowledging women too. Now there are more gender neutral terms which benefits us. But, it is obvious that either the media depicts women as the mothers of the word or a form of sexual pleasure for men. Which isn't me saying being a mother is bad, but theres way more to that.
Since the beginning of time, social customs have continuously evolved. Fashion always evolves, art always evolves, and language is no different. This article illustrated to me that we, as a society, are only in the infant stages of the conversation revolving around sex and language. While I was writing this comment, I was initially going to start off by writing "Since the beginning of man" to signify the beginning of human beings on Earth. The statement could be interpreted as "man" being used as a gender neutral term. Or it can be interpreted as ignoring the female gender and their contributions to society. It is clear that we are subconsciously programmed by the language we hear and read on a daily basis. It is important to continue questioning terms that we casually use without thought.
I have always felt something when generally all inclusive things about the human race were identified as "man". The way it completely denied women of a place where they take up space confused me. I think the way we are trying to change that thinking of a sexist language is a great way to change it slowly but it also just confuses me to why it had to start in the first place. My first thoughts of course are anger to all of those who came before us, those men who took dominance over our language. So much so that we have to unlearn the things we have been taught. I know our world is not perfect but I do have some hope for mankind. See, even now "mankind" was the first world I thought of besides the human race. It's engraved in our thinking and although we have started to unlearn these things, some people are so embedded in it that they will not change. They will not change and they will continue to live the lives we were taught to live and then teach that way of living to their children. Until hopefully one day their child or their child's child breaks that change of the way we think. Until they fight against this sexist language, this sexist world. I am a pessimist at the very least and although I am a pessimist I am still hopeful. I do believe we are not just man, we are women, we are anything in between and even nothing at all. As soon as we all unlearn these things and take into consideration of our past and learn from history and stop these repeating cycles of bigotry, sexist, racism, terrorism, maybe then we could finally refer to ourselves as not human, but something else that doesn't glorify the word "man", "men", "male" but rather a word to encapsulate us all.
This article highlights simple changes that can be made in order to include women which are not difficult but the patriarchy has a resistance to equality that is like no other. It mentions using chairwomen as apposed to chairman when talking about a women in that position of power. Normalizing using the correct wordage especially when discussing a woman in that position is not difficult. Recognizing gender is important because we need to normalize women in power so using the correct word is a start. The problem is it's become normal to automatically use "masculine" words even when talking about a woman. The article as touches on using all inclusive language. Now people put their pronouns at the bottom of emails and by their zoom name so there is no excuse to use the wrong pronouns for someone especially doing that repeatedly. There has been an open conversation around the subject of gender fluidity and pronouns and this has become very important within our society. The last section of the article shocked me when talking about the language used to describe rape survivors. The media described children as "having sex with" rather than being "raped" is disgusting language use for people who should be highly educated. I think we find this misogynistic language everywhere including to describe men and women doing the same action. For example, when Serena William broke her racket at a game, the media reported it as her having a tantrum and letting her emotions get the best of her because she's a woman. Men, when they break their rackets, (which has happened several times throughout history) are seen as passionate. I think this stems from the idea that women are seen as maternal, so any actions/words used by women that are seen as "masculine" are automatically criticized.
I don't think its a huge surprise that sexism is still greatly present even in today's society. It really depends on how you actually present your words when saying things. For example, sometimes the media takes the more masculine routine and instead of acknowledging women too. Now there are more gender neutral terms which benefits us. But, it is obvious that either the media depicts women as the mothers of the word or a form of sexual pleasure for men. Which isn't me saying being a mother is bad, but theres way more to that.