Women's Studies 1020E Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Cunt, Squaw, Slut

• School: Western University
• Department: Women's Studies
• Course: Women's Studies 1020E
• Professor: Kim Verwaayen

Document Summary

[some people argue that man and/or the pronoun he is inclusive of women: A lawyer should be scrupulous in preparing the details of his case . Summary of issue: since he cannot always be universal, and must sometimes be exclusively male, it is a problem to separate the specific from the general, and to take the male as norm. Richardson: studies show that beginning language learners perceive. Examples: a doctor should inform his patients . ; a nurse should ask her union rep . So: pronominal usage is not neutral after all . : language tends to identify women with immaturity + incompetence. The feminine diminutive (-ess, -ette; meaning small or imitative: kitchenette, leatherette) is less used now (but actress and waitress are still commonplace; why is it important to identify gender in these descriptors?) Examples: more frequent use of girl for adult women than boy for adult men: salesgirl, etc; (can you think of other examples?)