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Gender in Language

Amoylan's picture
Submitted by Amoylan on Sun, 09/08/2013 - 4:15pm

The discussion on thursday regarding seeing and reading gender in language really intrigued me. It had never occured to me to look for it or even think twice about it. I guess I always assumed that the voice of the author would be who was speaking in the piece. I find it so interesting that people can seem to tell what gender a voice is just by the words that are being used or the pattern of speech in the particular work. "Seeing Gender" really opened my eyes to a world of gender in language, the last passage expressed so much deep emotion and intimacy that was followed by the question "does gender lie here?" something I never would have asked or wondered about. I'm really looking forward to learning more about this and further analyzing it. 

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pipermartz's picture

Since discussing the

Submitted by pipermartz on Sun, 09/08/2013 - 5:02pm.

Since discussing the prevalence of gender in language and reading My New Gender Workbook, I'm starting to see gender in almost EVERYTHING written, visual, and audio that I encounter. While watching a bit of television last night, I became incredibly frustrated by at least 60% of the advertisements that aired. Target has a current ad campaign for their new, "trendy" kids clothing that features commercials with a different adorable child clad in their apparel. In one commercial, the ad begins with a shot of a girl's feet. As the camera slowly pans upward to reveal her outfit, "Eye of the Tiger" is playing. The shot reveals a young African American girl dangling from a pull up bar in sparkly sequined shoes, leggings, a pink tutu skirt, a ton of jewelry, and other "girl" clothing in "girl" colors. I was horribly distraught that Target decided to portray a young female as weak and unable to finish a pullup. Why not show her completing the pull up? Why not show a male child struggling to prove his strength (or more encouragingly, completing the exercise)? And why are these children dressed in the most extreme gendered clothing? When I was a child, I wore "boys" clothing and "girls" clothing! Most of the children I babysit for prefer a mixture of categorically "masculine" and "feminine" appear all. These ads are so frustrating because they are supporting and defining the gender binary for Kids and adults!

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