User:Mhliu58/Feminization of language

Lead:[edit]
"In linguistics, feminization refers to the process of re-classifying nouns and adjectives which as such refer to male beings, including occupational terms, as feminine. This is done most of the time by adding inflectional suffixes denoting a female (such as the standard suffix -ess in English, or its equivalent -a in Spanish)."v

Feminization is also related to neutralization, which is the process of replacing masculine forms of words (i.e. policeman) with gender-unmarked forms (i.e. police officer). Citation: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4735429/

Not to be confused with Feminization (sociology), though the two subjects are deeply inter-related.

** INSERT PHOTO HERE**

Caption: Hostess is the feminized form of the masculine "host".

Article body[edit]
In Feminist theory: (link to Feminist theory)

Recent efforts to modify the use of the generic masculine have generated controversy and debate. Feminists believe the use of the generic masculine to refer to someone who's gender is unknown erases women and should be abolished.[3]

Furthermore, some see evidence of the intentional preference of the masculine over the feminine. It has been argued that 17th century grammaticians who wanted to assert male dominance worked to suppress the feminine forms of certain professions, leading to the modern-day rule that prefers the masculine over the feminine in the French language. (Citation: Éliane Viennot, Non, le masculin ne l’emporte pas sur le féminin ! Petite histoire des résistances de la langue française, Donnemarie-Dontilly, Éditions iXe, 2014)

There are a number of arguments against such prescriptive rules however.[4]

In France, (Citation: https://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2017/11/21/le-premier-ministre-edouard-philippe-decide-de-bannir-l-ecriture-inclusive-des-textes-officiels_5218122_823448.html ) the Prime Minister at the time, Edouard Philippe, announced a ban on the use of gender-neutral French in official government documentation, arguing that implementing it would complication education and create little change in social structure. In response, Minister of Education Jean-Michel Blanquer also tweeted his opinion on the use of inclusive language, saying that “language is a bedrock of life that we owe to children” and that it “must not be instrumentalized, even for the best of causes.”

Research has also shown that, despite the inclusion of feminization to make language more gender equal, possible side effects can affect affect the recruitment process. Feminine job titles also affect the evaluation of female applications to job positions. Moreover, conservative political attitudes have been linked to a greater devaluation of female applicants with feminine titles compared to liberal attitudes. (Citation: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ejsp.1924 )

Additionally, some argue that feminization may be detrimental because feminine suffixes carry negative connotations. For example, a study found that women who were referred to as professoressa were seen as less persuasive than either a man or women who used the title professore (Italian for the feminine and masculine forms of "professor," respectively." (Citation: https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.1482/23164) Another reason feminized language may carry poor conceptions is because many efforts to feminize language are recent and therefore have not yet been accepted by the mass public. Feminized language may thus be used as a way to devalue a woman, especially a working professional (which is so often subject to feminization), by those who seek to prescribe traditional social orders to others.

Feminization in various languages:

French:[edit]
Double gender marking is prevalent in radical political pamphlets and manifestos. This is difficult to track, however, as these types of publications are written by many groups and tend to be published by organizations that don't keep detailed records of their activities.

Double gender marking has been demonstrated typographically using the masculine form as the baseline, and then adding a period or hyphen followed by the feminine suffix, such as fier.ère.s or fier-ère-s. (Citation: https://twitter.com/EditionsHatier/status/911553296313327616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E911553296313327616%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pri.org%2Fstories%2F2017-11-10%2Ffrance-has-plunged-struggle-over-gender-neutral-language )

Polish:[edit]

A study of the feminized form of diarolog, known as diarolożka (feminine) found that feminization lead to disadvantageous effects for female applicants. Applicants with a feminized job title were evaluated disadvantageously compared to male applicants and female applicants who retained the masculine form of the job title. (Citation: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ejsp.1924)

References