Blog #8 "Gendered Voices in Children's Television Advertising"

One of my favorite activities as a child, and even as a teenager, was watching cartoons on Saturday mornings. Growing up, we did not have a TV for over ten years and when we did have one, we usually were only allowed to watch movies. Because of the lack of TV exposure, I thoroughly enjoyed those Saturdays when I got to spend three hours watching cartoons. The commercials were more memorable than the shows themselves. I can distinctly remember that there were “boys” and “girls” commercials and that the “boys” commercials were always exciting and action packed and the “girls” were boring and full of feelings. I even remember the ad mentioned in Johnson and Young’s article about the RC MEGA RACING remote control car and how cool the ad made it look to be a boy with a car. I can still hear the aggressive voice-over in my head.

I am not surprised by what Johnson and Young found in their study, but it does make me feel like I should throw out my TV right now so that my 7 month old daughter does not get exposed to such blatant and exaggerated sexism. Kids in this country have almost no chance to be sensitive to sexist language when they are constantly being shown and told how to be a certain gender. The sexism found in TV commercials scares me because it is shaping who we become without our direct knowledge. I want my daughter to be open to a wide range of possible roles in her life, so watching Saturday morning cartoons may be off limits for many years to come. I will tell her later that she can thank my Linguistics class for her lack of TV viewing time.

Blog #7 "Molehill or Mountain? What We Know and Don't Know About Sex Bias in Langauge"

I decided to blog on Henley again because her last article got me so worked up. In “Molehill or Mountain?” she somewhat redeems herself in my eyes. She actually admits there has been progress made in changing sexist language, but she says it is too insignificant to celebrate just yet. This view was refreshing to see on paper. “Molehill or Mountain?” clarified much of what I found irritating in the last essay. The main reason for my turn around is due to her continued insistence that sexist language is the culprit and not the speakers. She claims that unsuspecting, well intentioned speakers, like me, may be using sexist language without even realizing it. As much as it irks me to say it, I agree with her.

Before this class, I did not know that using singular “they” was incorrect grammar, and I use it in speech all the time. If I missed learning this small rule of grammar, I could also be using sexist language without my own knowledge. It is unnerving to realize that the rules of language are so ingrained in who I am that I do not even know why I use certain words or phrases. I still think that each person is responsible for understanding how words may affect other people, and making the choice to be a user of non-sexist language. However, after reading this article I have a new appreciation for issues and concepts that I do not fully understand

Blog #6 "This New Species That Seeks a New Language: On Sexism in Langauge and Language Change"

Nancy Henley's article about sexism in the English language and language change was difficult for me to read without getting upset. I feel very strongly that in my life time women have drawn equal with men in everyday life. Even in the case of language, sexism is not what it once was. I feel it is sexist men who think they are inherently more important than women that use sexist language and not the language that makes people sexist. Men are not all aligned against feminist reform. English is not set in stone. There are alternatives and we all have a choice whether we want to use sexist language or not.

Henley says that "a women's sex is commonly treated as if it is the most salient characteristic of her being, but this is not the case for males" (4). I disagree with Henley. Again, a women's sex is her most relevant characteristic if you happen to be a stupid, hard headed, sexist man, but I am able to choose to focus on more than her gender if I want to. As a man, my experience has been that the characteristic other people, women and men, notice most is that I am a man. I think Henley's statement can be equally true for either sex.

This article made me mad because it had me feeling like the progress towards non-sexist language that has been made is being ignored in favor of more extreme changes that may be possible. I am all in favor of changing the world for the better, and eliminating sexist language would help, but progress is slow and painful. How about we celebrate the positive changes instead of complaining about what is still left to do. I may be wrong, but it seems that sexism in language has already changed for the better since 1987.