Gendered Linguistics: Why Words Matter
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- čas přidán 25. 11. 2018
- Elle Graham-Dixon, Group Planning Director & Equality Strategist, BBDO
Talking about diversity can be hard. But do words themselves add to the challenge? This session explores how language leads us to stereotype and exclude, then provides guidance. Because we can all speak up and choose our words, not watch them. - Zábava
Do we really need to re-create our language. Can't we just make ourselves aware of gender-biased literature and then adjust our reading of it accordingly?
A lot of points made about how language IS the patriarchy is so reductive that it dangerously ceases the dialogue we should be having around how language is rather used as a tool to uphold and proliferate the patriarchy. Language is used and abused by the patriarchy, language itself is not inherently bad, and neither is sexed language. I don't know what this trend is with lib-fems wanting to abolish the distinct differences between men and women. I understand that the patriarchy frames our differences as a detriment to our ability as women to assimilate and navigate in a patriarchal society, that our differences are what's keeping us back instead of actively critiquing the system that built these barriers and limitations for us to begin with. Personally, I do not want to be like men, or even likened to them with language as a bridge in which requires the razing of our unique identities and experiences as women to be built. We have to be vigilant as to how language is being used to erase the reality of women living under that patriarchy, so that we can reclaim it as part of our counter-culture. Sexed-language did not create a sexist society, that would be like saying the biological differences between men and women created the patriarchy, as if women ever historically had systemic power to be able to take that kind of responsibility for the creation of patriarchy, and if we did, wouldn't we use it to abolish the patriarchy instead of uphold it? I can't help but recognize that its men who stand to gain from us erasing ourselves with language under the false and reductive belief that language IS the patriarchy. 4th wave lib-fems can really be responsible in proliferating this kind of dangerous rhetoric, and I can't help but notice that they will make sweeping claims like this one but hesitate to plainly recognize that men are responsible for men's behavior, and they benefit from employing tools such as language to uphold the patriarchy. I don't know if its because of the pressures of academia and the professional / capitalist sphere, but we need to find ways to strengthen our resolve instead of throwing each other in front of The Creature to shield ourselves from It individually. I'm not sure when feminism started becoming "if I'm good than fuck everyone else" but I hate it here.
Persian or ancient Iranian words Man-eer is where our words ma, mother and mankind originate. Spanish has the word madre for mother and padre for father.
our words originate from latin words not persian words sorry. you know the romance languages? persian isnt even arabic its related to afghan, pakistan, and armenia
My preferred form of address is either "Master", "lord and saviour of mankind" or "your never-ending majestic holiness".
who even are you
@@maryjanehansen7947lmao thank you.
Tf were you yappin about
Damn, I think she did not check her psyche, because this horror can not be invented if you are a healthy person
13:15 I don't consider using words like "pushy" or "bossy" to be gendered. I can just as easily use these words to describe a man as a woman. How about a more nuanced perspective: if an individual behaves in a pushy or bossy manner, maybe that is a reflection of the fact that they are reacting to feelings of insecurity with regard to exercise of their own power. Perhaps the reason some women might behave this way is because they are more likely to be uncomfortable with the exercise of power within a patriarchal culture. To address this by trying to change the language people use is to deny the underlying reality and paper it over.
I do not believe changing speech will result in the kind of cultural change suggested here. If eliminating "gendered" speech is the goal, why would it necessarily stop there? This is just politically correct speech in its new and unimproved guise. People who really make a difference in this world identify with something higher than gender identity, but that does not mean we should eliminate gender or the masculine and feminine principles or whatever it is that this speaker is trying to say.
This whole debate is being handled by the media in a much too facile way. Gender is a very complicated and nuanced thing. To think that somehow a 15 minute talk on the matter can even begin to deconstruct the impact of gender roles in a patriarchal society is to reduce the lived experience of real people to irrelevancy.
You should've given the talk instead haha
I've never seen the word "bossy" used for men though.
@@user-jd1cp1nk1p I have.
@@user-jd1cp1nk1p I have. I don't live in any western country, though... is this a regional thing?
@@user-jd1cp1nk1p I have not either.
I've always liked that term "mansplain"! mansplanations aid men in their gaslighting of women.
We have a working language we don't need to create new words to confuse people. You want people to be able to read books already written and not to confuse them.
This talk was SO ninja! Insightful as well...
Ninja af right now with all of these man thoughts..... feeling the need to kick something
"A father and son are in a horrible car crash that kills the dad. The son is rushed to the hospital; just as he's about to go under the knife, the surgeon says, 'I can't operate - that boy is my son!' "
This riddle is a trick designed to create a certain outcome. The reason many people might answer this by saying the surgeon is a stepfather is because they would never assume the surgeon was the dead husband's wife. Why? Because to many people, a so recently bereaved wife might have taken bereavement leave from work. A stepfather might be emotionally distant enough from the boy's other father and might not be so incapacitated. The way this riddle is written leads people to embrace this specific hypothetical circumstance over the other possibility. Would a wife still be on the job if her husband just died?
This experiment needs better controls. You cannot prove gender bias this way. However, this riddle does show how language rises from cultural circumstances. The microcosm this riddle creates forces the reader to fill in the blanks. To choose a male surgeon in this scenario does not make you mysogynistic, it makes you rational. This speaker seems to suggest that we will have achieved our gender-neutral utopia when exactly 50% choose a male surgeon and 50% choose a female surgeon and seems to further suggest that we get this outcome by enforcing a change in language. This is a circular argument. To say that culture makes language is one thing, but to say the reverse - that language makes culture - is a dangerous logical fallacy. Leave it to the chattering class to come up with that one.
The power of words is to influence perception and interpretation of reality. They have little if any influence over reality itself. Until we learn that lesson as a society and culture we will only ever build new tyrannies to distract us.
Some good points, but I totally disagree that the words deemed 'female' from the job spec would make a job profile inferior to those used in the 'male' list. If offered the option of hiring a top-tier, compassionate, bold person versus an aggressive ninja I know which one I would rather have working for me (as a client or a manager), whether male or female.
Hello, thank you for saying. I actually agree with you. The issue I have is with removing the word 'salary' and 'leader' not with rewriting the language of all workplaces in a more compassionate way. And I agree that this didn't come across in my voice over. Thank you - helpful feedback. E
Don't know.... AGGRESSIVE NINJA KICKS are high demand.
Man's name Herman has both Her and man in it. Hercules has Her in it although a male character Herakles was named after Hera queen of Olympus in Greek Mythology.
Do you realize that you just made this all up? The name Herman means army man. It has nothing to do with the pronoun “her”. It's not an English name.
I thought we live in year 2021, but here it seems like 1984... if you know what I mean
Totally agree
Orwell?
How is this 1984?, Orwell depicted language as a key issue that relates in how we determine and explain the world so does the speaker, however she anylises language through gender as to relate it to modern day mesagony...
Read the book next time.
I actually clicked on this because I thought it was going explain why Spanish has gendered verbs and adjectives. I got click baited. I knew when I seen some attractive young chick.
You think she know languages of the ancient people of many thousands of years ago?
I don't know if there are any more Germans here, but in our case, I think, we could use some neutral pronouns, because it would actually be EASIER and also neutral words.
For example: We have two words for each profession or any other description of a person.
Teacher = Lehrer / Lehrerin
Dancer = Tänzer / Tänzerin
Somker = Raucher / Raucherin
So the first word accords to a male person and the second word to a female person.
There is a big discussion going on because for decades we have only been using the male word when we were talking about a bigger group including male and female (even transgender and intersexual) people. We call this the "generic masculinum", meaning we use a male word, but we mean EVERYBODY, not only men.
People on the political left to middle usually want everyone to use both words now when they're talking about a group or use "Lehrer/in", because women often don't feel adressed. Disagreers (often in the political middle to right) find this to be unnessecary and complicated.
Tbh even though I usually count myself to the political middle to left, I am one of the disagreers. Because it really IS complicated, especially in written law, which I work with daily (already complicated enough). Also: this would again include men and women only, even though our law aknowledges the existance of a third gender already. Also I don't like the thought that all the previous texts I read in my life apparently didn't address me as a woman (which I never questioned until like 2015 I guess ?). I also don't like the thought of just being "added" to a male audience by using the "Lehrer/in".
So even though it would be very difficult for people to get used to it (especially conservatives don't like it at all when our language changes just a bit), I guess the long terms best solution would be to just find neutral words. Everyone would be and feel included and it would not make any text any more complicated.
Ich sag's mal kurz: Ich finde das gegendere auch nervig. Deswegen finde ich neutrale Wörter gar nicht so schlecht. Dann müsste man immer nur ein Wort verwenden und würde damit z.B. auch intersexuelle ansprechen.- Wäre natürlich auch gewöhnungsbedürftig, aber nach der Gewöhnung viel einfacher.
who heres from boomerhan?
The word woman has man in it and word man has word ma in it.
боже, надеюсь её уволят отовсюду, такой бред говорит, ужас, не пускайте тупых людей на экраны
I'll stop talking to strangers before I do all this
then start shutting the fuck up now
He, his, him.
There are no masculine pronouns at 6:50
Male and masculine both have ma in them.
Masculine also has ma in it.
I've just watched this and while I thought I knew a lot about gendered language already, this has definitely opened up the horizon so much more and my understanding with it. Thank you so much for sharing this, I will be sharing with everyone I know!
If she's against gendered language, shouldn't she be against mansplaining
That's right. Her talk is inconsistent. What a waste of time.
You don’t understand what mansplaining means. If you read the definition, it says, “When a man explains something to someone, typically a woman, in a condescending or patronizing manner.” This term was created by women, and reinforced via use on the internet, picked up by algorithms and then entered into the dictionary by popular use. She is not condoning mansplaining. She is saying that we have power in taking to the internet and creating new words, and she used mansplain as an example of a new word that was created by women for women, to define a dynamic that men exert over women.
@@gheoffricare4520 You have a fragile ego. I think what really bothered you about this talk is that a woman presented concepts in an intelligent manner that you couldn’t figure out due to a level of ineptness. So, rather than seeking to understand, you have chosen her as a target to attack. Great work.
@@meganlevegan didn't you hear her say "my favorite new additions to the dictionary"? :) Of course, I know what "mansplain" means so you don't really have to womansplain that term (See? What an annoying term). But really, I don't believe in "mansplain/womansplain." It's just a stupid term that's created by "women" who couldn't describe their feelings to dominating men since they lack of vocabulary. And that's right, I'm not attacking her, but the inconsistency of her words. If she really wants to fight for nongendered language/gender equality, then isn't only right for her not to recognize such derogatory words that could hurt the opposite gender? Also, I support gender equality and that's why I listen to her to the end. But I'd never support radical feminists like her. Fragile ego? I don't have that.
@@meganlevegan if women go for gender equality then use it to harass their opposite gender, then I'd rather glad to be a misogynist for that matter. TAKE NOTE: I'm not representing all men. It's my choice knowing that there are people like her who are inconsistent with their ideology.
She's really cute
"Every language spoekn in today's world makes some gender distinction" - no it doesn't. Beyond the narrow Anglocentric worldview that you have, there exist cultures with no genders like Bengali and Odia. I am so sick of you people from the West acting like you know what's every country's problem and solutions.
Male has ma in it.
There seems to be some confusion between pronouns and nouns.
This was great, thanks for sharing.
Word woman has man in it and word man has word ma in it.
Male has ma in it which is female parent.
Equal opportunity is possible but equal employment might be challenging.
She raised some interesting points.
Persian word man-eer is where we get words ma, mother and mankind. Spanish has madre for mother.
Very good presentation.
I did a presentation for university on the topic of gendered linguistics and used her example of the Chinese letters.
Господи, откуда вы такие тупорылые лезите?
Ah yes, 13:58 liking "mansplain" while advocating getting rid of gendered language. Inconsistency is real.
i think ur missing the point
No, I don't. I know what she wanted to say in her video, but all of a sudden she mentioned that "mansplaining" is one of her favorite words.
@@gheoffricare4520 Way to take it literally and out of context. She didn’t say it was one of her favorite words. She said it was one of her favorite additions to the dictionary. And by use of context and semantics, what she is saying is that these are a few words that have been added to the dictionary by way of popular use on the internet, further reinforcing her point that her audience has the power to influence the creation and use of language simply by “tweeting” after the conference.
Man has ma in it from Man-eer ancient Iranian or Persian word for mother also where we got word mankind.
Remember the good old days when you could call a man on a street guy and woman a girl and don't get flamed by SJWs that you don't know all 800+ genders. I memeber
the fact that you care about what a bunch of wierd losers think makes me infer that you're more sensitive than they are...
@@maryjanehansen7947 the fact that you actually check comments that was posted a year ago and answering to them makes you a pure looser
its an intersting speech.
THANKYOU FOR OPENING MY MIND
Probably the most life-changing video I've ever watched.
I just farted.
She is sick...
It's a nonsensical talk.
agressividade = feminine gender
competitividade = feminine gender
ambição (ambition) = feminine gender
You did not understand the talk. This video has nothing to do with gendered words, it has to do with our use of language in a gendered manner to indicate femininity or masculinity. She is talking about the power of the use of “masculine” language and how suggestive it is to our minds that it reinforces the idea of the masculine as the dominant group in power.
@@meganlevegan That's exactly what I understood and it is the reason it is bullshit.
Ok but really, who cares?
my interpersonal communications teacher apparently lolll
My gender is God so my pronouns are He/His grace