Sexism In English: Embodiment And Language

Today political correctness is somewhat of a controversial subject. This can be confusing, because why would anyone want to say something offensive in a public setting? There has been a huge push back at political correctness; according to some it has gone to far and is now infringing on freedom of speech but, being politically correct is important. In Allene Pace Nilson’s piece called Sexism in English: Embodiment and Language she studies the English languages natural tendencies to oppress women through language and connotation. Though she pointed out that a lot of these issue have changed such as addressing someone whose gender is unknown as them instead of just referring to the masculine pronoun. Despite the progress there are still a lot of problems brought about by the english language one Nilsen mentioned that i found most interesting is the calling a man feminine is considered an insult. This ideology that is so deeply ingrain in our culture is what I believe is the root of a lot of the current sexism we experience in modern America. The idea that femininity is seen as weakness and masculinity is strength creates a lot of problem. Yes, women in American have much more …show more content…
In Fairman’s essay Saying it is Hurtful, Banning it is Worse he make the argument that there are words that had once had negative connection are now being repurposed such as the N-word. That is the beauty of language, words and there meanings are ever changing. We can change how we look at Feminine attributes and attribute them to strong figures such as hospice nurses. They have a very difficult job. A lot of people could never watch that many people die and be okay, because that takes strength, but it also takes empathy and nurturing traits attributed to women but, not typically