#that relatable moment when you do a mini research project on how homophobia and misogyny links to our language

[muffincupv]

I think it’s super interesting how the patriarchy is so embedded into our culture that our modern language helps push patriarchal values.

I’ve done a bit of personal research into this topic and thought I would share it here

(Note this was a quick highschool project so it’s not super in-depth but I would love other people’s thoughts on it) sorry this is long :)

I’m currently taking a class in my high school where we are talking about gender, feminism, sexuality, and the patriarchy. Specifically how the patriarchy is imbedded in our day to day lives and how it’s effects intersect with other issues such as racism, homophobia, classism, etc.

I looked into the English language and linguistic relativity.

An Analysis of Sexism in English

In the English lexicon, one of the most obvious evidences of sexism is the affixes which lead to a view of women as a deviation from men. This is commonly seen with suffixes such as -ess or -ette.

Example: Actor “ a person who plays the part of a character in a movie or play”, when attached to a feminine suffix –ess, becomes actress with the meaning of “ woman with profession similar to those of actor”. ← othering of women as if Femininity is inherently not human. Why is actor “a person” while Actress is “A woman” why make the distinction?

Other examples include:

Masculine Feminine

ambassador ambassadress

duke duchess

prince princess

poet poetess

Sometimes adding the suffix -ett or -ess completely changes the meaning and value of the word. (Govenor vs Goveness- one rules a country the other teaches children in their homes).

Why does this matter?

We need to considered how language is intimately tied to behavior, knowledge, and culture. Sapri-Whorf Hypothesis, more commonly known as linguistic relativity is the theory that a person's language changes how they perceive the world around them. Since its conception, this theory has been widely debated. However, most people believe the theory, it's debated how much language impacts our culture, but the idea that it has an impact is backed up by many studies.

Studies include Colour study, how Russian speakers could identify colors faster than English speakers + How German speakers lost that ability after years of speaking English. Note that Russian and German both have more labels for colors, differing them from English speakers.

How has our language accidentally othered femininity?

The acoustic and perceptual bases of judgments of women and men's sexual orientation from read speech.

This studies how people view sexual orientation based on their speech and voice. They found that gay men were easier to identify than lesbians even though they both changed their speech. Men would raise their voice, feminine while women would lower theirs to be more masculine. This shows how femininity is easier to identify because we see it as an “other” so when women show more masculine traits we gloss over it because we see it as more “normal”.

This is only one example that shines light on how we don’t even notice these biases. There are likely hundreds of more that we can't even begin to imagine because it is so ingrained in our day-to-day life, our culture, and our society.

Impact/intersect

Misogyny and Homophobia: Patriarchy, gender policing, and the Male Gaze

It’s hard to tell which came first. Did our black and white language accidentally push an anti feminine belief or has misogyny and the patriarchy impacted our day to day speech? Either way at this point it’s more of a cycle constantly pushing patriarchal values.

Misogyny is not only the act of hating women but hating anything seen as “feminine”. When it comes to homophobia gay men and lesbian women are treated differently. Homosexual men tend to suffer discrimination and abuse because they don’t fit what is considered “manly” This is why people say things like “that's so gay” as an insult. Men not adhering to masculinity or showing more feminine traits are discouraged.

On the other hand, lesbians get more hate due to fetishization and breaking the patriarchy. Many queer women in WLW presenting relationships have experienced comments including “Can I get in on that” or “I can join in if you want a threesome”. Interestingly, “butch” women and others who present more masculine are “treated with fear and contempt for trying to encroach on traditionally male territory and not conforming to normative ideals of female beauty” (Williamson, 7).

Obviously there’s more impacts that have resulted however I just focused on homophobia as an example of intersectionality. If you have any other examples feel free to add on and share them.

Anyways thanks for listening to my rant I just thought it was interesting :)