Argument Essay: The Power Of Language

It is entirely undeniable that language has power. We use language to explain feelings, thoughts, rights, and reasons and utilize it as a way to move and change the world so that it can be more inclusive for all groups of people. Language has allowed marginalized groups to explain their experiences, to change the discourse surrounding them, and to give them titles that they choose rather than ones forced upon them. Sadly though, the same language that can free some individuals can cause others to feel further oppressed or excluded. The English language system (and truly most global languages) is deeply rooted in a fierce attachment to the identification by which I mean the issue that we cannot leave something to exist without a label. This …show more content…
When language is constructed out of this binary understanding, the labels that result are seen as immutable and unchangeable, with a lack of flexibility or change and leads to the unfortunate circumstance of these labels being “confused or lumped into the same category by society at large” (Serano, 350). I bring back the particular definition of pansexual as attraction to male, female, or “other” genders. The use of the word other is telling. It takes gender identities that exist outside of the binary and places them into a state of something else, something different, and something outside of the norm. “When we buy into the idea that female and male are ‘opposites’, it becomes impossible for us to empower…without…pulling the rug out from under ourselves” (Serano, 352) Again the language we want to use to empower those who are not heterosexual is itself relying on concepts, “cultural gender ideals” (Serano, 349) that exclude. The power of queer reemerges in this context. Queer does not shoulder ideas on gender, it does not refer to male or to female or to gender nonconforming or to genderflux. It does not hold to the binary, and therefore it is