"In Defense of Gender", written by Cyra McFadden describes—in a satirical fashion—the nonsensical, all too often ubiquitous neutering of the English language across the country, both spoken and written. McFadden brings to light the issues that arise, as oppose to lessen, when gender-specific components are removed. I found myself in agreement with the author on many, if not all, of the points addressed within the article. To disassemble the English language—both written and spoken—and then…
A 2011 article by Nancy Bombaci addresses the possibility the famous author, Gertrude Stein, having autism. Bombaci states that Stein is often referred to as a “loose cannon,” and claims that many of her writings occur in a style which matches the speech pattern of those with autism. Whether or not Stein actually has autism, however, it not stated. Autism typically causes extremely specific character traits, being hyper-attention and intelligence. Though autism has different effects on…
What does the bulletin board in the hallway, the right side of your computer screen, and the I- 60 have in common? You may be thinking that there is no relationship between the three things, but it’s so obvious and so prevalent that you become so used to it that it only affects your subconscious. All three are locations and mediums for advertisement. We live in a world cluttered with an overwhelming amount of advertisements for marketing. Marketing techniques and strategies can even effect…
Skill acquisition theory focuses on how people learn a skill and the advancement of that skill. (DeKeyser, 2007) .According to Lightbown and Spada (2013), second language acquisition is seen as a build up of knowledge that eventually becomes automatised. In addition, McLaughlin (1990) views language acquisition as a type of motor skill and that language acquisition is related to learning a skill like driving a car or riding a bike. Skill acquisition theory claims that we all acquire skills in…
In Defense of People and Language: A critical analysis essay Gender equality is a very hot topic these days as women demand equal rights in the workplace and are even running for President. This fight for equality can even be seen in the way we speak and write. Cyra McFadden, the author of “In Defense of Gender”, writes about how the English language is increasingly becoming gender neutral in an attempt to be sexually unbiased toward women. However, the overuse of gender neutral terms is…
Gender-biased vs. gender-neutral education Gender roles remain strong in education, as children are often treated and taught differently depending on their biological gender. Not only does this promote the gender gap and stereotypical gender roles, but it also tends to exclude those who do not identify as their assigned or any gender. Lately, these issues have been recognized and addressed and alternatives are being thought of. Some small steps towards gender-neutrality have also been taken.…
Lego Visual Analysis All children love to play with good toys, and Lego company has always been one of the best representatives of the toy market. At the same time, there is a recent alarming tendency to produce toys that are aimed to support specific gender stereotypes. Analyzing the way advertising of Lego toys changed from 1980s to modern day, it is possible to trace the path of stereotyping in regards to gender. The audience can see how Lego advertisements have regressed from using…
I recently attended A Christmas Wonderland, a drag show made up of some of RuPaul’s most talent drag queens such as; Roxxxy Andrews, Kim Chi, Latrice Royale, Naomi Smalls and many others. This was unlike any drag show I had been to before because instead of being in a small bar with limited seating and dingy lighting, it was in a real performance hall where the Nutcracker was being performed the following week. The first thing I immediately noticed was just how many different kinds of people…
grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation. Personal Pronouns, in particular, can be considered as the easiest and the most basic grammar point at the first stage of learning English, but learners cannot avoid making mistakes when translating them into another language, particularly Vietnamese. Therefore, I would like to present a contrastive analysis of personal pronouns between English and Vietnamese. A Contrastive Analysis of Personal Pronouns in English and Vietnamese.…
personal, while also objective tone, to connect to her audience. During the start of her article, Antonia presents the soda tax and and its uncanny resemblance to other sin taxes, such as “cigarettes, alcohol, and various other products deemed offensive to public morality or public health.” This allows more readers to find the Philadelphia soda tax more relevant, even if they don’t live near Philadelphia, thus allowing more readers from…