Language and gender

Lenguage and gender

Social Stereotypes

Sex and gender

Sex≠Gender

is a biological state

is a social custruct

Something that a person can dimostrates through behaviour

Something which a person is born

Sexism

While many countries have recognized the equality between men and women, there are still many cases of sexism that can also be found in language.

Semantic Derogation

Asimmetry

Word Order

Marked Terms

Asymmetry

Is a term associated to the different use of two words that have the same meaning.

The female word corresponding to bachelor is spinster, while the first word gives a positive view of the man's single life, the second word is used to indicate a lonely and old woman.

The asymmetry can be assosiated to the common difference between male and female titles. While the women's titols indicate their status, single or married, the men's titols no provides information about it.

Job Titols

Another type of asymmetry can be found in job terms; for example, in these types of words all of them end with the word "man".

Chairman

Postman

Policeman

Fireman

Today, to include women at work, we use more neutral gendered job titles.

In your opinion what are the neutral gendered job titles that correspond to this titols?

Marked Terms

Is a term that indicates the counterpart of a neutral term

Here there are more examples

For example, while the word actor is considered unmarked because it indicates a male actor or an actor in general, actress is a marked word because it indicates only a female actor.

Word Order

In several researches, it has been shown that during the speeches or greatings, the man-woman order prevails over woman-man order.

Semantic Derogation

Is a process that describes how a word takes a negative meaing over time.

Another example of semantic derogation is the concept of women as desserts

For example: the word bitch was originally the female corresponding of dog, but during the time this word has acquired a negative meaning for the women.

Cupcake

Honey

Peach

Cookie

Shared Floor

in a conversation between women they wait their turn to speak

Tag Questions

are small sentences placed at the end of the phrase that express uncertainty or to invite the other person to continue their speech

Dialogue between women

Minimal Responses

are small signals made by the partecipant to let know that they are paying attention

Hedging

signals to let know that they respect what has been said

Bla bla..

Kind of...

Bla bla..

...Uh-huh...

Bla bla..

Sort of...

Bla bla..

...Yeah...

... right?

Bla bla..

simultaneaus talk

that could be seen as disrespectful, but there isn't objections from the speakers, and this can be indicate as an overlap rather than as interruption, it's a normal way of sharing opinions.

one at a time floor

in a conversation they don't share informations or opinions when someone else are talking, but use silence as a way to show that they are listening.

Dialogue between men

BLA BLA

bla bla...

BLA BLA

...

BLA BLA

BLA BLA

bla bla...

...

Man vs Woman speech

Women talk too much

Another social construct is that women talk too much.

Is it true?

A very important point that we must consider is the context and the speaker's ideology.

Mansplanning

What does mansplaining mean?

This term is usually used when a man explains something to a woman that she already know.

It became popular among feminist bloggers and added in 2014 to the online Oxford Dictionaries.

Is the act of explaining something in a way that suggests that other is stupid

But the mansplaining is rarely intentional. Probably, in some cases is a natural thing

Mansplainers

How can you recognise a mansplainer?

You ignore problems of others

You seek dominance in any conversation

You hold back positive feedback

Your tone is often condiscending

You can be rude

1,4-2,27

Womansplainers

Beyond the mansplaining there is another phenomenon called womansplaining

...

...

What is it?

Another act of womansplaining is accusing a man for what he is talking about when this one is simply his opinions or when a women interrupt a man who is talking.

Is the tendency of some women to believe that they know more about some topics than a man does and proced to explain to him things that he already know.

Thank you for the attention!!

Francesca Mormando

Rossella Trifirò

Beatrice Montevago