Janet Holmes extract summary

In this extract from a book by Janet Holmes, it is argued that the English Language discriminates against females. She argues this point by showing examples of Animal imagery; essentially saying that animals used to describe women are negative (cow, bitch) while the animals used to describe men are positive (fox, stud). She also claims that Food imagery shares this negativity towards women; words like "sugar", and "sweetie" to describe a woman are patronizing, and that there are no popular food comparisons to be made to men.

The main issue with this extract is that these words are seemingly no longer common place in the English Language today; it's very rare that a man is described as a "wolf" or a woman is described as "chick" in casual conversation in current times.

Read the full extract here.

Independent article summary

In this article, The Independent report of HSBC's move to offer 10 new gender neutral titles to their customers. Since banking is serious, and the documents surrounding banking are very important documents, HSBC feel like it is essential that customers that do not identify with the traditional Mr, Miss, Mrs and Ms feel comfortable with expressing their own identity within these high value agreements and transactions.

Read the full article here.

https://debuk.wordpress.com/2016/05/16/the-pronominal-is-political/

Comments