Can language be sexist?

Although we rarely  associate words with genders outright in English, the subliminal associations can still have an impact.

In languages like French and Spanish, when there is even just one man within a group of people, the pronoun that refers to the group is plural masculine.

“That’s pure sexism,” said Richard Janda, a lecturer in linguistics.

Phrases with sexist connotations

We’ve all heard these phrases: “that’s so gay” and “stop being a pussy.”

“That’s so gay” associates sexuality with stupidity, while “stop being a pussy” associates having female genitalia with being a wimp.

Jen Maher, a senior lecturer in gender studies, said when a man is called “pussy,” he is feminized. The meaning behind the saying is that if the masculine body is to be penetrated, it is feminized.

“That is the insult to other guys,” she said.

The ultimate meaning of “gay” has changed over time. It went from meaning “happy” to meaning “homosexual.”

The older generations can no longer say phrases such as “gay time” or “gay fellow” without people being confused by their meaning and drawing unwanted attention, Janda said.

The negative connotation of the word will not change until “gay” is associated with something positive, such as intelligence, Jada said.

“It’s a strange concept of linguistics,” Jada said. “If you want to kill the meaning of a word, use it all the time.”

Culture affects language

Remember when Ben Stiller’s character in “Meet the Parents” constantly gets criticized and laughed at by his in-laws because he is a male nurse?

Why do we refer to Stiller’s character and others as “male nurses”?

Nurses are stereotypically  women, so we have to clarify that a nurse is a man or we assume that a woman is occupying that position. Can we change this? The answer is yes, but slowly.

“In order to change things, you have to change the prototype,” Jada said. “It’s a two-way street. You can’t change language without changing the culture. Culture alters the way we look at language.”

Does gender identification in language determine our interpretations of the objects?

A recent study shows that people who are fluent in English but are native speakers of languages such as French, Spanish, Russian and German refer to objects as feminine or masculine depending on their native language.

For example, “moon” is feminine in Spanish and Russian but masculine in German. Therefore, native speakers of Spanish would refer to the moon as a “she” and native German speakers would refer to it as “he.”

And when asked to describe an object, different speakers used masculine or feminine characteristics depending on what gender the object is in their native language.

For instance, if the word for “sun” is masculine, one might describe it as “powerful” and “threatening.” But if the word for “sun” is feminine, one might focus on its warming and nourishing qualities.

Source: Sex, Syntax, and Semantics by Lera Boroditsky, Lauren A. Schmidt, and Webb Phillips.