Experiences with Sexist Language for Discussion on Friday
Please write freely about your own experiences with language (any language!) and culture. Be sure to give examples (and translations, if needed) to specific words or sayings. Pay special attention to any sexist biases built into a language.
12 comments:
A comment from Tina:
Bronchitis
“Bronchitis” is a medical term, which means an inflammation of bronchi in the lungs. In Chinese, it is pronounced “Qi Guan Yan”, in which “Qi Guan” means Bronchi and “Yan” means inflammation. Interestingly, when I was teaching Medical Terminology, my Chinese students were always laughing about it because it has another meaning about husbands. In Chinese, “Qi “also means wife; “Guan” is the same as controlling, and “Yan” means tightly. If someone’s wife is very controlling, we often call her husband “Qi Guan Yan”! Shanghai husbands are known as “Qiguan Yan” as they are very obedient to their wives, certainly you can see “Qi Guan Yan” anywhere. I have to say that “ch” is pronounced like k in many medical terms like this.
A Comment from Tien:
According to Alleen Nilsen, women carry "the benefit of a masculine escort" along with them wherever they go. The gender bias are everywhere. Hongkong has no
exception. The women put their husbands' family names on top of theirs. For example, the congresswomen, Chan
Fong On Sang and Yip Leoung Suk Yi. In fact, women
cherish and welcome about the benefit of their husbands. However, not all marriages can last long. For example, Fok Chu Ling Ling, the former daughter-in-law of the Hongkong high-influential billioner, Fok Ing Tung, who had won a title of 'miss
Hongkong' and soon being an actress, thought that she
would be very fortunate by marriying into a very
wealthy family. After Flourishing the family with three gorgeous sons, people believed undoubtedly that in Chinese custom, she must have been adored by everyone in the family; Nevertheless, she ended their fifteen years' relationship and has returned to her acting career and lives in the public eyes again. Indeed, she has to 'return' her husband's family name immediately and she is in an embarrasing situation
now.
In Russia to show respect to the older man than you or to a person whose status or rank is higher than yours, you should address him by his first name and patronymic (middle name). For example, Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich – the President of Russia. Russian middle names always are fathers’ names, patronymics. Women keep their middle name after the marriage while their last name (family name) is changed for husband’s name as usual. In Russian language patronymics for men always end in – ICH and for women – in –NA.
Example: If the father’s name is Victor and he has a son named Alexander and a daughter Anna then their names are: Alexander Victorovich; Anna Victorovna
Sexism in Russian
If we analyze Russian language, we notice the signs of linguistic sexism which are common to those in English as was described by Nilsen.
Married women usually take husband’s name that once again reminds us that a wife is historically her husband’s property. Middle names for both men and women are obtained from their father’s first name that emphasizes men’s responsibility for the children’s future. Many words of female gender have negative connotation; for the rudest cursing people use different equivalents of female identification. Many words of feminine gender (for example, name of women’s professions) were obtained by adding suffixes to the name of male’s professions. Russian proverbs are also not very respectful towards women: ”Listen to the woman advice and do the opposite.” I agree with Nilsen’s opinion that the stereotypes in language coexist with the stereotypes in mind.
Long Hair than Wit
In nowadays, women have equal rights with men in China and some of them may have higher power and position in their families because they can earn more money than their husbands, but I’ve still often experienced discriminations that against women in our language, culture, and people’s minds, just like Alleen Pace Nielsen summarizes in her essay, “Sexism in English.” For example, “long hair than wit” is still a popular word that means women’s wit is less than men because they have long hair. Our great thinker, Confucius, even warns that people should be careful with “a contemptible person” and “a woman.” Although no one dares to say this word in the public, they can still say it as a joke to women often.
The two Chinese words “男” and “婦” imply the role of gender in Chinese society. The word “男”, which means man, is composed by two parts –“田” and “力”. “田” means a farm field, and “力” means a labour. So the whole word means a labour in a farm field. It shows us the role of man in Chinese society is the bread maker for his family. On the other hand, “婦”, which means woman, is also composed by two parts-“女” and “帚”. “女” means a female, and “帚”means a broom. So the whole words “婦”shows us the role of a woman is to do housework at home. The two Chinese words exactly indicate the Chinese culture about the role of gender. It is a man is more important and powerful than a woman in a family.
In Chinese communities, there is a saying "xiong da wu nao"(Chinese pronunciation), that means, women have bigger breasts but a bird brain. Of course, I think that it’s not only a sexism but also a sexual harassment, so it usually comes up in men’s talks only when there is no women’s presence.
In Rumanian language, there are some “untranslated” words. The most characteristic for Rumanian spirit is the word “dor”. This word came from Latin “Dolores”, which means pain. In English it is translated by “miss you”, however the meaning of this word can be: passion, love, desire, nostalgia, sadness, sufferance, and many other connotation.
We use “dor” when a dear person is away or when we desperately need to be close to someone. I love this word because it reflects the heart of our language.
I received a text message from my friend in China. It was a joke about learning Chinese: a foreigner wants to learn Chinese; at first, he chooses a simple word “wife”. When he starts to study, he finds there are many ways to call wife in Chinese. After getting all the answers, he dies. This is to certify the difficulty to learn Chinese. I pay attention to the fact, most of the appellation for wife with sexism. For example, “chaff”, “the thing at home”, “broom holder”, “that woman”, “silly wood”, “female tiger”, “quilt warmer”… I can’t find right words in English for much such kind of calling, but some of them show the sexism obviously.
Sexism in Chinese Culture
Alleen Pace Nilsen said: “sexism is not something existing independently in American,”
and “it exists in people’s minds.” In Chinese culture, sexism is also evident. For example, Confucian had a famous saying: “唯女人和小人难养也,” which means women are as same as evil men. Because Confucianism is the orthodoxy in Chinese Culture, it still deeply influences Chinese people today. Sexism is not only found in Confucianism, but also appears in Chinese linguistics. In Chinese, some words show strong sexual discrimination. For instance, “女”means female, but three “女”are put together to form the word
“姦," pronounced “Jian,” which means sexual immorality and evil devices. In modern time, although Mao Zhe Dong destroyed all Chinese traditions and promoted equality of men and women, sexism still roots in Chinese Culture. Today, women get the new nickname from men called “三八,” “Three-Eight” or “Eight-Witch” in English, which originated from “March 8, International Women’s Day,” but it contains very negative connotation. I agree with Alleen Pace Nilsen’s opinion: “Language is like an X-ray in providing visible evidence of invisible thought.”
In Vietnam, people usually say in Vietnamese, "This flower already has a owner," to a person who chases or attracts to a lady who already has a boyfriend. It means a lady, like an object, and it belongs to a boyfriend, and nobody isn't allowed to take away from him. It also means a lady is under controlled, and a man has a power over her. In Vietnamese, people have never said, "This guy already has a owner". This way of Vietnamese's culture matches with Alleen Pace Nilsen's main point, "Women Are Passive" in "Sexism in English"
I agree with Nilsen that “the language that a culture uses is telltale evidence of values and beliefs of the culture.” Especially in Chinese language, many Chinese words and sayings imply the Chinese values and beliefs about gender.
Many Chinese words indicate that existence of sexism in the culture. For example, the two Chinese words “男” and “婦” exactly indicate the role of gender in Chinese society. The word “男”, which means man, is composed by two parts –“田” and “力”. “田” means a farm field, and “力” means a labour. So the whole word means a labour in a farm field. It shows us the role of man in Chinese society is the bread maker for his family. On the other hand, “婦”, which means woman, is also composed by two parts-“女” and “帚”. “女” means a female, and “帚”means a broom. So the whole words “婦”shows us the role of a woman is to do housework at home. The two Chinese words exactly indicate the Chinese culture about the role of gender. It means that a man is more important and powerful than a woman in a family.
Some Chinese mottos can also show us that a man is much more respectable than a woman. A famous Chinese motto, which is used to remind a man to take precautions against a woman, says, “A woman is the origin of a man’s disaster.” In other words, if a man killed somebody in order to get in love with a woman, the woman rather than the man is usually blamed even though she is innocent. From the motto, we know that a woman is always considered as a despicable person, but the man is always considered as a “good” person.
The sexism in Chinese society is based on ancient Confucianism. The great philosopher thought that a man is the lord of a woman. Although 2500 years has passed since the creation of the thoughts, it still remains in contemporary Chinese society, and that a woman is equal to a man is just in the law, not in the real life.
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