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Perspectives
Sexism in the English Language
Margaret Piercey
Sexism and the ESL Teacher: Restarting the Discussion
In our patriarchal society there is still evidence of inherent sexism in every aspect of life. This perspective essay concentrates on the sexism that is inherent in the English language. Although this ongoing debate may be considered by some as outdated, I disagree. In writing this essay I attempt to bring to the forefront an important issue and, I hope, to restart discussions. I do not assume the authority of summing up the whole debate, but rather would like to reintroduce ESL teachers to the subject and to sensitize them to covert assumptions and overt practices that seem to sustain sexism. As teachers and professionals we have the responsibility to continue learning and growing, to search for, develop, and offer our students our best teaching practices. We need to assess not only our students, but ourselves as well. Through observations of, and reflections on, our own teaching proce- dures, we may want to redefine our goals and practices to include nonsexist material, language, and literature. Numerous publications that deal with sexism and nonsexist teaching are available from departments of education and teachers' associations. To draw a connection between the work we do as ESL teachers and the problems women face in our society today can be a daunting task. Question- ing some of our views and values requires strength. However, it is an important aspect of our work as ESL teachers if we wish to give all our students the necessary tools to be whole, competent, and dynamic members
of society. In her book Feminism and Linguistic Theory Cameron (1992) points
out that there is a good deal of feminist work emphasizing the importance of cultural representation of gender-men and women as they appear (or in the case of women don't appear) in stories, pictures, textbooks, scholarly ar- ticles, and so on-in forming the identities of real women and men, their notions of masculinity and femininity, their expectations of what is possible and their ideas of what is normal. (p. 5) I structure this essay around three themes: English as a part of culture, the discrimination in English, and the marginalization of women in literature. All of this has a profound effect on women in society and girls in schools. It is important for ESL teachers to be conscious of sexism in English (as this is
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the language we teach), to stop contributing to it, and in tum to use and support nonsexist language.
English as a Dominant Language: A Man-Made Language
In his book Linguistic Imperialism Phillipson (1992) suggests that the acquisi-
tion of English as a second language has been correlated, and is related, to "nationalism, nationism, development, modernity, efficiency, western civilization, and many other culturally-loaded values, all of which are fea- tures of contemporary capitalism" (p. 85). This creates the inevitability that individuals who learn English as a second language will also learn the cultural and sociological ideologies inherent in this language. According to Phillipson, teaching English has three functions: First, part of the widespread legitimation for English is to qualify people
to build up the nation .... It therefore has an economic-reproductive func-
tion.... Secondly, English is also supposed to bring 'modem' ideas with it, to be a channel for interpersonal, social, and cultural values. It there-
fore has an ideological function.... Thirdly, English has a repressive func-
tion, in that there is no choice other than to use the language in English classes. (pp. 68-69) As ESL teachers it is up to us to be aware of all these functions. Our students are not only learning a language as a tool to communicate with others, but they are also learning the cultural values that are embodied in the language.
In Man Made Language Spender (1980) concludes that "women could learn
to speak exactly like men and yet still be evaluated as less successful-even
hesitant and tentative-precisely because it is not only the language which determines the evaluation, but the sex" (p. 79). Because women's speech is not considered assertive, it is often assumed that they are lacking something. However, we must be aware that this does not mean that women do not speak well, it just means that they do not speak like men. ESL teachers need to be sensitive to this when we evaluate students' learning and progress. Spender (1980) goes even further to suggest that language actually con- structs our reality. We constant use symbols to make sense of the world in which we live, and language is a set of symbols, with inherent limitations, that we use to determine our reality. In this context it is nothing short of ludicrous to conceive of human beings as capable of grasping things as they really are, of being impar- tial recorders of the world. For they themselves, or some of them, at least, have created or constructed that world as they have reflected themselves within it. (p. 139)
She concludes that this is a language trap in which we are caught. We do not
want to organize our world any other way; moreover, "it has been the
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bias that always favors males. In English semantics, or in the meanings available in English, males not only have more words but they have more positive words. There is lithe existence of a semantic rule which determines
that any symbol which is associated with the female must assume negative
(and frequently sexual-which is also significant) connotations II (Spender,
1980, p. 19). Simone de Beauvoir argued in her book The Second Sex that "all
the negative characteristics of humanity as men perceive them are projected onto women" (Cameron, 1992, p. 84). When talking about gender in the English language, one must look at the masculine-feminine dichotomy that arises in the vocabulary. Gender is determined by meaning, not form; therefore, in seemingly neutral terms a
sex is assigned. Consider gender in the following adjectives: aggressive, ar-
rogant, charming, confident, dependant, emotional, flirtatious, gentle, logical, nag-
ging, rational, stable, submissive, talkative, and tough. Cameron (1992) suggests
that lithe attribution of gender is relational: it depends on the contrast be-
tween two terms II (p. 83). Therefore, we need to consider gender connota- tions if we choose to include opposites in our lesson planning such as tough-weak and active-passive, because a lesser value is placed on the feminine as it is opposed to the masculine. Names such as Sir-Madam and bachelor-spinster that do denote male and female in their definitions are clear examples of the feminine taking negative or inferior connotations. "Gender seems to be a conceptual component in many unrelated lexical items; and that oppositions often function covertly as hierarchies, which means it may not be a neutral fact that this system represents women as the negative of men" (p. 87). Sexist language "cannot be regarded simply as the 'naming' of the world from one, masculinist perspective; it is better conceptualized as a multi- faceted phenomenon occurring in a number of quite complex systems of representation, all with their places in historical traditions II (Cameron, 1990,
p. 14). Because the English language is man-made, it reflects the cultural
values of men, what they find important (and what they do not), and these values are then handed down to each new generation. Through the use of sexist language women are effectively eliminated and
excluded from the day-to-day reality that they exist. Words such as he and
man are supposedly employed to include women. However, they are clear
examples of a sexist linguistic structure because what they are effectively doing is excluding women, as women could never experience nor identify
with he. Margrit Eichler, in Women and Men: Interdisciplinary Readings on
Gender (Nemiroff, 1987), concludes that lithe use of male terms for generic
purposes constitutes a sexist practice that has two major flaws: for one, the male terms are not experienced as truly generic. For the other, to use terms that have two quite different meanings is highly confused and confusing" (p. 28).
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Male grammarians have handed down "Rule Number 21," which is the
use of he and man as generic as a means of arguing for the superiority of
males in the structure of the language because "the male gender was more
comprehensive than the female" (Spender, 1980, p. 148). This opinion, which is
based on no sound facts, has been used "to formulate a grammatical rule which would put the users of the language in the 'wrong' if they did not
adhere to this belief" (p. 148). However, to use the alternative they in the
singular as, for example, in the phrase "Anyone can play if they learn" has been determined to be quite common even though it is considered grammati- cally incorrect. As ESL teachers we need to be open to alternatives, to use them in our own teaching practices, and to relax rigid adherence to this rule in the name of grammatical correctness.
Women's Marginalization in Literature: Sex Objects and Beauties In literature, which is the written form of language, women are marginalized and relegated to positions to satisfy male fantasies. Women's real experi- ences are hidden and obscured behind a language that insists on their pas- sivity and silence. In many children's stories that are used to teach values, boys and girls receive two different messages. Boys, who will become men, learn that they are the doers, "that a great man risks all for intellectual daring, for progress and for the publlc good" (Wolf, 1991, p. 61), whereas young girls, who will
become women, learn that they have things done to them and for them and
that their importance lies in how they look. Take, for example, the popular
fairytale Sleeping Beauty. The beautiful princess is asleep, and the only thing
that will wake her up is a kiss from the handsome prince. So she lies there waiting for him, looking beautiful, and is eventually saved by him. As a yOlL.lg girl grows up she realizes that not only must she look beauti- ful, but she must be sexy and desirable as well. And if she reads anything like
Henry Miller's Sexus, she will learn that sexual intercourse is not about love,
but about domination and the fulfillment of men's wants and needs, not her
own. Kate Millett explores this concept in her book Sexual Politics (Abrams,
1988). She analyzes selected passages from D.H. Lawrence, Henry Miller, and Norman Mailer "revealing the ways in which the authors, in fictional fantasy, exploit sexuality in order to aggrandize their aggressive phallic selves or to master and degrade women as submissive sexual objects" (p. 208).
Women's Herstory: ESL Students Need the Whole Story Adrienne Rich has said that women's "enforced ignorance has been a crucial key to their powerlessness" (Backhouse & Flaherty, 1992, p. 149). Women are ignorant of their past because their past stories have never had any impor- tance for men. In the education system women learn men's history: they read
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