Sexism And Language
By Allen Pace Nilsen from The Macmillan Reader
Besides being tools of communication, the vocabulary and structure of a language tell much about the values held by its speakers.
Any one living in the United States who listens with a keen ear or reads with a perceptive eye can come up with startling new insights about the way American English reflects our values.
Animal Terms for People – Mirrors of the Double Standard
If we look at just one semantic area of English, that of animal terms in relation to people, we can uncover some interesting insights into how our culture views males and females. References to identical animals can have negative connotations when related to a female, but positive or neutral connotations when related to a male. For example, a shrew has come to mean “a scolding, nagging,
evil-tempered woman,” while shrewd means “keen-witted,
clever, or sharp in practical affairs; astute? businessman, etc.”
A lucky dog or a gay dog may be a very interesting fellow, but when a woman is a dog, she is unattractive, and when she’s a bitch she’s the personification of whatever is undesirable in the mind of the speaker. When a man is self-confident, he may be described as cocksure or even cocky, but in a woman this same self-confidence is likely to result in her being called a cocky bitch, which is not only a mixed metaphor, but also probably the most insulting animal metaphor we have. Bitch has taken on such negative connotations – children are taught it is a swear word – that in everyday American English, speakers are hesitant to call a female dog a bitch. Most of us feel that we would be insulting the dog. When we want to insult a man by comparing him to a dog, we call him a son of a bitch, which quite literally is an insult to his mother rather than to him.
If the female is called a vixen (a female fox), the dictionary says this means she is “an ill-tempered shrewish, or malicious woman.” The female seems both to attract and to hold on longer to animal metaphors with
negative connotations. A vampire was originally corpse that came alive to suck the blood of living persons. The word acquired the general meaning of an unscrupulous person such as a blackmailer and then, the specialized meaning of “a beautiful but unscrupulous woman who seduces men and leads them to their ruin.” From this latter meaning we get the word vamp. The popularity of this term and of the name vampire bat may contribute to the idea that a female being is referred to in a phrase such as the old bat.
Other animal metaphors do not have definitely derogatory connotations for the female, but they do seem to indicate frivolity or unimportance, as in social butterfly and flapper. Look at the differences between the connotations of participating in a hen party and in bull session. Male metaphors, even when they are negative in connotation, still relate to strength and conquest.
When I was living in Afghanistan, I was surprised at the cruelty and unfairness of a proverb that said, “When you see an old man, sit down and take a lesson; when you see an old woman, throw a stone.” In looking at Afghan folk literature, I found that young girls were pictured as delightful and enticing, middle-aged women were sometimes
interesting but more often just tolerable, while old women were always grotesque and villainous. Probably the reason for the negative connotation of old age in women is that women are valued for their bodies while men are valued for their accomplishments and their wisdom. Bodies deteriorate with age but wisdom and accomplishments grow greater. When we returned home from Afghanistan, I was shocked to discover that we have remnants of this same attitude in America. We see it in our animal metaphors. If both the animal and the woman are young, the connotation is positive, but if the animal and the woman are old, the connotation is negative.
Probably the most striking examples of the contrast between young and the negative connotation of old age in women are animal metaphors relating to cats and chickens. A young girl is encouraged to be kittenish, but not catty. And though most of us wouldn’t mind living next door to a sex kitten, we wouldn’t want to live next door to a cat house. In the chicken metaphors, a young girl is a chick. When she gets old enough she marries and soon begins feeling cooped up. To relieve the boredom she goes to hen parties and cackles with her friends. Eventually she has her brood,
begins to henpeck her husband, and finally turns into an old biddy.
How English Glorifies Maleness
Throughout the ages physical strength has been very important, and because men are physically stronger than women, they have been valued more. Only now in the machine age, when difference in strength between males and females pales into insignificance in comparison to the strength of earth-moving machinery, airplanes, and guns, males no longer have such an inherent advantage. Today a man of intellect is more valued than a physical laborer, and since women can compete intellectually with men, their value is on the rise. But language lags far behind cultural changes, so the language still reflects this emphasis on the importance of being male. For example, when we want to compliment a male, all we need to do is stress the fact that he is male by saying he is a he-man, or he is manly, or he is virile. Both virile and virtuous come from the Latin vir, meaning man.
The command or encouragement that males receive in sentences like “Be a man!” implies that to be a man is