Are people aware of the sexist language they use?

Can the language we use today imply that it's not normal for females to have professional, highly paid jobs? Is it really seen as un-natural for a man to become a nurse? The connotations of the words we use can suggest this, and personally I think it's time we start preventing this from happening, so children aren't influenced to use this kind of sexist language as language can represent our thoughts. An article on Sexism in language  explores how we're able to prevent this matter and to change the language we use so we're not seen as sexist. This isn't the only extract which has tried to find alternatives to prevent sexism. Some people argue that the term 'mankind' is always used as a generic term; this has been criticized because it implies that men are more important. Is this necessarily the case?

 

Some theories of sexist languages are old fashioned. For example the grammarians from previous centuries came up with the rule of placing the male word first in the phrase to suggest they're higher status and they saw it as 'natural' to put the male first, although not many people may still stick to this rule. Recently gender-specific terms such as 'policemen', 'firemen' and 'headmaster' have been replaced by neutral terms such as 'police officer' and 'fire fighter'. 'Person' has replaced man in many compounds to make the terms sound more neutral. An interesting article on Feminist Philosophy of Language explores what feminists think of this matter.

 

In addition to this due to the male dominated society we live in, women are victims of being addressed with names which can been seen as patronising. Have you ever been to a shop or got on a bus and a male has addressed you as 'love' or 'babe' or 'dear'? Some people may think they're just being nice and polite while others may feel highly offended and patronised. Maybe some individuals should take into account that some women do not want to be called this. I don't know about other women but when I get addressed like this I suddenly feel like I've shrunk to the size of a pea. Not pleasant.

 

Why is it that there are so many insulting words for women and not that many for men? Most of the insulting names which women get called are animals such as 'cow' and 'dog' and other insulting names have got sexual associations such as 'slut' and 'slag'. However words denoting sexual promiscuity in males tend to be more positive such as 'stud' and 'lad'. This just shows how unfairly women can be treated just through language; this again needs to change.

 

However, some radical changes have not been generally accepted. These words are 'womyn' instead of woman and 'herstory' replacing history. Do you think this is a bit too far? Or do you think it's fair? Changing language to gain equality isn't as easy as that. This change might make a statement to reduce sexism but is it really practical?  

 

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