Communicating Gender
Suzanne Romaine
Oxford University
ISBk
1999
LAWRENCE ERLBAUM ASSOCIATES, PUBLISHERS
Mahwah, New Jersey
London
Contents
Preface
1
DOING GENDER
Doing and Displaying Gender 1
Gender in Cross-Disciplinary Perspective 6
The World of Words: Communicating Gender
Through Language 15
Language: Loaded Weapon or Broken Tool? 20
Multiple Jeopardy: Gender, Race, and Class 23
Exercises and Discussion Questions 28
Annotated Bibliography and Suggestions for Further
Reading 29
2
BOYS WILL BE BOYS?
In the First Person Masculine 33
The Female Eunuch: The Second Sex? 35
Sex and Gender: What's the Difference?
41
Thank God I Am Not a Woman 49
Changing the Subject 53
Genes, Gender, and Social Policy: The Difference
That Difference Makes 57
Exercises and Discussion Questions 61
Annotated Bibliography and Suggestions for Further
Reading 62
3
WHAT'S GENDER GOT TO DO WITH GRAMMAR?
A Brief Herstory of Gender in Grammar 66
CONTENTS
VUl
Grammatical Gender 69
Natural Gender 73
Leakage Between Grammatical and Natural Gender
Problems and Prospects for Reform in Languages
With Grammatical Gender
85
Exercises and Discussion Questions 88
Annotated Bibliography and Suggestions for Further
Reading 90
82
4
ENGLISH—A MAN-MADE LANGUAGE?
Spinsters, Old Maids, Hags, and the Word That Rhymes
With Rich: How Women Are Spoken About 92
Mothers and Workers by Other Names: The Housewife,
the Working Mother, and the Problem Called
Housework
95
Whores, Sex Kittens, Sluts: Women and Bad Words 98
One Man in Two Is a Woman 102
Pronouns and Pictures 104
Male Subjects/Female Objects 109
Sexism: A Deliberate Master Plan for Language?
Ill
Exercises and Discussion Questions 117
Annotated Bibliography and Suggestions for Further
Reading 118
5
WHAT'S IN A NAME?
Name Calling 121
Is It Miss or Mrs.? 123
Ladies First? 125
Marked Women 130
The Lesser Man
140
The Invisible Woman: A Rose by Another Name 146
Exercises and Discussion Questions 148
Annotated Bibliography and Suggestions for Further
Reading 149
6
GENDERED TALK: GOSSIP, SHOP TALK,
AND THE SOUND OF SILENCE
"Women's Language": Fact or Fiction? 153
Getting a Word in Edgewise 157
Is Silence Golden? 160
Wait Till You Hear What Happened to Me! 165
Women Are More Polite, Aren't They? 168
Why Ladies Are Supposed to Talk Properly 172
No Laughing Matter
182
Exercises and Discussion Questions 184
Annotated Bibliography and Suggestions for Further
Reading 186
91
121
151
CONTENTS
ix
7
LEARNING HOW TO TALK LIKE A LADY
Doing Gender at Home 191
Gendered Play 194
Best Friends 198
Gendered Classrooms 201
The Hidden Curriculum: How Boys Get Ahead,
While Girls Learn to Get Along 204
Gendered Texts 211
Degendering Schooling/Engendering Learning 216
Exercises and Discussion Questions 219
Annotated Bibliography and Suggestions for Further
Reading 219
189
8
DIFFERENT WORDS, DIFFERENT WORLDS?
Language at Work: Sexual Harassment
223
When Is Sex Rape? 228
When "No" Doesn't Mean "No": Forcing a "Yes"
Out 230
Good Girls, Bad Girls, Virgins, and Vamps 236
Misogyny, Murder, and WomanSlaughter
245
Exercises and Discussion Questions 248
Annotated Bibliography and Suggestions for Further
Reading 249
221
9
ADVERTISING GENDER
The World of Advertising: Is This Your Life? 253
Marketing Feminine Gender 255
The Sexual Sell 263
Selling the Happy Homemaker 272
Selling the Career Woman and the Househusband
278
How Television Makes Up Children's Minds
280
Declaring War on Sexist Advertising 281
Exercises and Discussion Questions 288
Annotated Bibliography and Suggestions for Further
Reading 289
251
10
LANGUAGE REFORM: A MSGUIDED
ATTEMPT TO CHANGE HERSTORY?
Should We Leave Language Alone? 292
From Dictionaries to Dick-tionaries: Websters Old and
New 293
Resisting Reform
297
But Is It Miss or Mrs. Revisited? 308
Language Reform in Public and Private 311
Language Engendered/Degendered and Regendered: The
Limits of Change 315
Exercises and Discussion Questions 318
291
CONTENTS
X
Annotated Bibliography and Suggestions for Further
Reading 320
11
WRITING FEMINIST FUTURES
Male Utopia, Female Dystopia: The Origins of Feminist
Fabulation and Speculative Fiction 323
To Boldly Go Where No Woman Has Gone Before 328
Women's Space: From Outer Space to Inner Space 332
Strange Bedfellows and the Language of the Future 339
Is the Future Female? 351
Exercises and Discussion Questions 352
Annotated Bibliography and Suggestions for Further
Reading 354
323
References
357
Author Index
383
Subject Index
391