Generic Laguage

I have never thought that male generic language excluded women so much. I’ll be the first to say I am a pro-feminist so I think it’s wrong for language to exclude either male or females. I guess because males are the dominant sex in society then male generic language is widely accepted. I really never thought language was that big of a deal. Obviously it is a big deal in society now that women are taking a stand for themselves.  For those of you that don’t know male generic language, according to Woods, “is supposed to include both women and men, but in turn really only refers to men.” (Woods, 118) Also something the media does is spotlighting, which the book states, “the practice of highlighting a person’s sex.” (Woods, 118) Some easy examples are mankind, mailman, businessman, and spokesman. These examples come from the book, but are prime examples. Upon researching more about this ongoing issue, I ran up on a fair amount of sites that talked about teaching people to write in inclusive language instead of exclusive. I found this odd again since I never thought that language was such a big deal in society.  In one article I found this interesting, “Newspaper, like other media, are guilty of symbolic annihilation, symbolically ignoring, trivializing, or condemning women. Men receive more coverage. Coverage of women is more likely to mention the person’s sex (spotlighting), physical appearance and marital status or parenthood.” I find this to be disturbing because everyone should be treated equal and not singled out in any way, shape, or form. Unfortunately, media tends to follow males more and when women are followed, the media makes it known. Further in this article, it also mentions women being shown in a provocative manner. For example, I was watching TMZ last night while doing homework and this coverage of a celebrity came on. It was a women and the only reason they covered this celebrity was because she was not wearing a bra. Other than that, there was no significant meaning to the media following her. IN retrospect, the media wouldn’t even bother with following a man who was going “commando” and not wearing boxers underneath his pants or shorts.

Language and Gender.(n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.public.iastate.edu./~f2004.soc.327/laguage&media(nov05).pdf

Woods, J. (2011). Gendered Lives: Communication, Gender and Culture. Boston, MA: Wadsworth,

Cengage Learning.

Being a real man

Society has been built upon men being the dominate rulers over all. When a man is viewed as being sensitive or is connected to his feminine side, then he is ridiculed by being called vulgar names. Paul Kivel, wrote in The Act-Like-a-Man Box, “From a very early age, boys are told to act like a man.” The box that society has created for men to be this hard-ass stereotype is wrong. I say this because I live outside the box and don’t view myself to be inside this box. I'll be the first one to say I am a sensitive guy that cares about a woman's opinion and respect women just as much as I do my fellow man. I believe in feminism which I guess makes me a pro-feminist. I don't believe it is right to ever put your hands on a woman in an inappropriate manner, no matter what. To cause harm to a woman is unacceptable in my eyes. I searched on the NOMAS website and found something that I would like to point out to my fellow man. This is a quote of the material that I would like for you to think about, Phyllis Frank says," In a country where coverage of women's lives and achievements is hardly equal to that of men's where pictures of women scientists, writers, and thinkers rarely appear in the popular press, we are awash in photographs of anonymous young women, selected and pictured to sell products, attract attention, and please male viewers."

Objectification of Women

To read more about this quote follow the link above. It was written by the NOMAS organization. 

This quote says it all. Women are not equal to men. My personal opinion...that is bull crap! Women should be treated as equal and it is sad that they are not displayed in the media as equal to men. You normally see women who are dressed in a sexual manner to sell a product. You rarely see a woman writer or profound scientist being recognized in the media. Men view women as lesser beings who are only here to serve us. This is completely wrong and the only way this will change is for men to take a stand and change society. NOMAS is doing a good job with raising awareness that it is okay for men to have a sensitive side and support women. The way our society is and how women are not treated as equals, is unacceptable. This need to change and it starts with men loving women like God intended. Women were meant to stand by a man, not behind, or in front. 

Are you willing to change society and take a stand for women everywhere? That's what determines the real men from the fake ones. 

Reference List (2 sources)

Frank, P.B. (n.d.). Objectification of women. Retrieved from http://www.nomas.org/node/247

Kivel, P. (1984). The act like-a-man box. Men's Work and Boys Will Be Men

Forced Sterilization

The Sound of Silence: Where is the Anti-Choice Outcry over North Carolina's Forced Sterilization of Women of Color? By: Pamela Merrit

Article Link

For this short blog, I just wanted to say what the hell is this about? Our great nation had Eugenics programs to limit, "disabled, poor, people of color, and immigrants" from having children. This is completely wrong and just disgust me personally. We all of a sudden turned into Nazi Germany and make it so people can't have children under their own free will. Reading articles like this, just make me plain sad. It reinforces the idea of our "country" truly isn't what it is made out to be. Even though these programs were run between 1900s up until 1970s, it still impacts America. It's pathetic that our government allowed this in-humane programs to be conducted and suppress all these other groups of people. This article is about informing the public as well as seeking justice for the survivors. The world we live in is scary and it's pathetic that everyone can't be treated equal. In my opinion, everyone is on the same level. It shouldn't matter what the color of your skin is or what gender you are. History has not been kind and if things like this are allowed in the future, then how are we ever going to move on from the past. Life is precious and to find out that some people played the role of God, is down right blasphemy. Anyone should have the right to have a child if they choose so. Now I won't get started on abortion, but I do believe that if a woman and man want to have a child, then they should not be denied this God given right.

Any opinions on this article?

Gender and Raising a Child

So far this semester we have talked about several topics that I have found very interesting to me. The most interesting topic was talking about gender being stereotyped and how people raise their children. For me personally, I know nothing about parenthood. I am only 23 years old and don't plan on having kids for at least another couple of years. Growing up I have always seen myself as a boy and since I was born a boy, my parents taught me all the little things that little boys learn. I was taught to not cry, not play with dolls, go play in the mud, and  other stereotypical instances. After a specific reading one day, I thought about it,  what if my parents just let me grow up and didn't teach me to be a girl or boy? Would I have grown up like X? Now X was a little human being who had no specified gender. He was allowed to grow up with aspects of each gender and the parents taught the child that that was okay to not be specified. That child grew up to be a perfect child who surpassed all expectation of a normal child.

As I write this blog, I just want to ask one thing, what is your opinion on this next question? If the world threw gender out the window and allowed a child to grow up and find out on its own what he or she wanted to be, then how would the world be as a whole? For better or worse? Personally I believe that if every child turned out like X, then this world would be better off as a whole.