Friday, 21 March 2014


Men and women are of the same species therefore their power should be adequately equivalent but that view was absent when the English language was generated…

Dominance:
When partaking in convocation with mixed-genders and varied statuses, dominance becomes apparent as people try to achieve their convocational aim. It has been said that when convocation takes place between man and women; men are more prone to interrupt.

Dale Spender - 1980-
“Male dominance of lexis leads to female negative space.”  Dale Spender has discovered that as men were the dictionary author’s words often refer to their gender e.g. ‘women’ contains the term ‘men’- stating men’s power upon language.
In connection, the term ‘butch’ refers mainly to women addressing that they have manly assets/habits but the word can be expressed towards men; whereas the word ‘camp’ is purely specified towards men referring that they have feminine conducts  (women are not generally said to be camp). This illustrates how men have terms dedicated to them where as women have to share a term.

Job description- http://www.snagajob.com/job-descriptions/host-and hostess/                                                      
A job description has a sub-heading - ‘What do Hosts and Hostesses do?’  almost referring to the alternated term as a completely different job.  These marked terms stress how male dominance is shown with great clarity. It continues to state both variations of the word throughout the whole piece of text – perhaps this is to avoid offense from one gender if only a single term was used or to redefine that the job is open to males and females (the text’s purpose is to inform and maybe persuade people that this job is most efficient for them).
                 Further down in the text the job implies that the job is perhaps desired for a male ‘work their way into manager jobs.’(manager – male, manageress – female)  – this could however have been done accidently because the term ‘their’ has been used to imply that there are numerous candidates that have equal chance.

1 comment:

  1. A really well-focussed summary and analysis showing good understanding. Should 'convocation' be 'conversation'? Look at the Zimmerman and West research too but be sure to evaluate its reliability.

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