Although Arabic language has a rich system of masculine and feminine genders, women are always seen linguistically inferior to men (Mahmoud, 1993). And worst of all is that many people, including women, consider this to be normal in a society where women are still struggling for their fundamental rights. In other words, women are not seen as separate human beings; they are always attached to men in family interaction, university contexts and media. It is worth mentioning that we no longer live at the age where women were seen as submissive to men with a sole role of bringing up kids and taking care of their men. Women now are free independent human beings whose roles in society, to some extent, surpass those of men. So, it is “unacceptable”
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There is a grammar rule in Arabic which clearly states that when the sentence includes males and females together as its subject, the plural system of the subject will take the masculine gender. This rule is also found in the French language. However, we are not trying to change the syntax of the language, but rather draw attention to this type of grammatical derivations, which have a social foundation, that may lead to excluding women in language by continually using masculine forms to refer to both genders. Furthermore, the Arabic language is not to be solely blamed, since it is not a group of words and structures of grammar, but also a social being which needs a long time to be grasped and implemented. Unfortunately, if we go inside families where the life of future generations is put on track, we notice that kids are being fed with enough terms and language behaviors that affect their way of thinking, and thus making the issue of sexist language something normal which they carry to schools, and later to their workplaces, and after that raising their own kids on the same mentality and the biased use of their …show more content…
This stereotyping gap that society created between the two genders is the product of several centuries and did not allow women to make an equal linguistic presence such as that of men. Here comes the role of the media which nowadays is the most effective means of transporting concepts and ideas and implementing new visions. But to what extent is this media contributing to the issue of sexist language and stereotyping women? Does family interaction in which the male generic is always favored lead to underestimating females linguistically? Do university students think that the Arabic language favors, in many cases, males over females? Why are most Arabic songs, which are sung by males, addressed to the listener with male generics although they are clearly addressed in their message to a female? Why doesn’t this ever happen with a female singing to a male and using female generics? How do press articles use language differently? Does the topic of the article impose a specific gender-oriented language? How can male-gender dominance in the spoken and written Arabic language lead to a sexist language where one gender is more favored than the other? Where does this gender dominance stem from? Do social roots have anything to do with this
There is a grammar rule in Arabic which clearly states that when the sentence includes males and females together as its subject, the plural system of the subject will take the masculine gender. This rule is also found in the French language. However, we are not trying to change the syntax of the language, but rather draw attention to this type of grammatical derivations, which have a social foundation, that may lead to excluding women in language by continually using masculine forms to refer to both genders. Furthermore, the Arabic language is not to be solely blamed, since it is not a group of words and structures of grammar, but also a social being which needs a long time to be grasped and implemented. Unfortunately, if we go inside families where the life of future generations is put on track, we notice that kids are being fed with enough terms and language behaviors that affect their way of thinking, and thus making the issue of sexist language something normal which they carry to schools, and later to their workplaces, and after that raising their own kids on the same mentality and the biased use of their …show more content…
This stereotyping gap that society created between the two genders is the product of several centuries and did not allow women to make an equal linguistic presence such as that of men. Here comes the role of the media which nowadays is the most effective means of transporting concepts and ideas and implementing new visions. But to what extent is this media contributing to the issue of sexist language and stereotyping women? Does family interaction in which the male generic is always favored lead to underestimating females linguistically? Do university students think that the Arabic language favors, in many cases, males over females? Why are most Arabic songs, which are sung by males, addressed to the listener with male generics although they are clearly addressed in their message to a female? Why doesn’t this ever happen with a female singing to a male and using female generics? How do press articles use language differently? Does the topic of the article impose a specific gender-oriented language? How can male-gender dominance in the spoken and written Arabic language lead to a sexist language where one gender is more favored than the other? Where does this gender dominance stem from? Do social roots have anything to do with this