To get you thinking….  As you take your seats, complete the ‘If a man / woman were a ….’  Work by yourself for 5 minutes on this  Compare your answers with the person next to you – what conclusions can you draw about the two sets of lists? Be ready to feedback one observation you’ve made about your answers.

Language is used to police behaviour and enforce men’s superior place in society woman’s inferior place in society. What questions would you want to ask of this conclusion in order to prove or disprove its truth? Put your idea on post it note and keep it safe.

To begin with, let’s look at naming conventions  How many different words are there to refer to a woman? What can they be called? Divide your word choices into positive and negative words.  How would you categorise these words?  What conclusions can you draw about how naming conventions are used in relation to women?

Shirley Russell, Grammar, Structure and Style, pp  Shirley Russell argues that insulting is a means of control. She quotes Julia Stanley, who claims that in a large lexicon of terms for males, 26 are non-standard nouns that denote promiscuous men. Some have approving connotation (stallion, stud). In the list of nouns for women are 220 which denote promiscuity (e.g. slut, scrubber, tart). All have disapproving connotation. Equally terms denoting abstinence – like the noun phrase tight bitch are disapproving. In “Losing Out” Professor Sue Lees argues that men control female behaviour by use of such terms, especially slag. Note that today both dog and bitch are used pejoratively of women. Dog denotes physical unattractiveness, while bitch denotes a fault of character.

Listen Write  Now make a note of three observations you can make on the basis of what you’ve heard.  Let’s compare your thoughts with the person next to you.

Robin Lakoff  Edit this linguistic article. What 5 key points do you think Robin Lakoff is making? Record your ideas.

Let’s go back to the original hypothesis – has your question been answered? Language is used to police behaviour and enforce men’s superior place in society woman’s inferior place in society.  Sapir Whorf hypothesis A hypothesis holding that the structure of a language affects the perceptions of reality of its speakers and thus influences their thought patterns and worldviews.

Do you agree or disagree with this point of view? Take 5 minutes to respond to what we have discussed so far.  Do you agree that these terms are patronising and deeming to women?  Do you think that the English Language, based on this example, is andocentric?  Do you think that linguistics like Russell and Stanley are ignoring the male point of view?

For next lesson….  Find 7 adverts involving women and bring them to next lesson (it might be helpful for you to make a note of which publication you got them from.)

To begin with….  In your groups collate your advertising images – how would you categorise these images into different groups?

 Now make 5 claims about how women are being represented

What the sociologists say… notably Jean Kilbourne, Sut Jhally and Erving Goffman  The Artificial look  Dismemberment  Commodification  The feminine touch  Relative size  Ritualization of subordination (on the floor, the kiss, as a child or withdrawn)

Can you make 5 observations about language use?

 Gender identity + gender steroetypes = andocentric language?  OR  Gender identity + andocentric language = gender stereotypes?  Sapir Whorf hypothesis A hypothesis holding that the structure of a language affects the perceptions of reality of its speakers and thus influences their thought patterns and worldviews.

Nicknames help girls to get on top Career girls shorten their names to be ‘one of the boys’, a survey revealed yesterday. They use abbreviations like Jo, Chris and Sam because they see feminine names as an obstacle to success. Dr Helen Petrie, of Sussex University, said: ‘They see possessing male traits as a positive thing rather than a negative thing.’ ‘In today’s world maleness is associated with success, achievement and being in control.’ ‘Twice as many women as men actively chose to shorten their names to things like Nicky, Charlie or Mel.’ Aggressive The study also showed that women with masculine names were more likely to be tomboys. Dr Petrie said: ‘They not only see their names as masculine, but live up to it by being aggressive, forceful and independent.’ Would boys ever adopt feminine nicknames?

Round Robin You have two minutes to record your thoughts about the article but from the perspective of either:  Lexis  Semantics  Pragmatics Now feedback your thoughts to your group

Let’s go back to the original hypothesis  Language is used to police behaviour and enforce men’s superior place in society woman’s inferior place in society. What conclusions have you drawn on the basis of today’s lesson?