The Emergence and Direction of the Field

I don't know why people are so reluctant to say they're feminists.

Could it be any more obvious that we still live in a patriarchal world when 'feminism' is a bad word?

Ellen Page

Gender roles and behaviors have interested me my whole life. I grew up with an older brother and sister and, like everyone else, my early life experiences were heavily influenced by the sex I was born with. In my cultural context, this meant that I had a pink bedroom and was absolutely delighted to receive Barbie dolls for Christmas. My mother was a nurse, a good cook and an attentive homemaker; my father 'went to work', cut the grass and took care of the car. In short, I grew up with stereotypical gender modeling around me. Until I came to recognize the inequalities embedded within the gender distinctions that these models presented, I saw being a girl as unproblematic. After all, I liked Barbie dolls – as did my sister. We felt no oppression. My life goal to be a language teacher seemed very possible and realistic; Minnie found work in a floral shop. Without extraordinary effort, I qualified as a teacher in due course. In many ways, I am a 'typical' woman: I am married to a man, I have children, I like to decorate and read, and I have chosen a profession easily open to women: education. Would these realities have been the same had I been born male or not heterosexual? Perhaps. Likely not.

The lived realities of being female, feminine, male or masculine is central here in relation to language use. There are two reasons why I am writing this handbook on gender and language use. One is that being formed, rehearsed and rewarded by my culture into performances of gender and gendered life choices predicts lives like mine. This universal human reality (that we are deeply connected to our communities through our genderedness) is in and of itself reason enough to consider the complexities and the implications of gender. The second reason is that rehearsals into genderedness are most fascinatingly revealed in language use, language tendencies and language patterns. An interest in the relationship of language use and one's gender emerged from my experiences as a classroom language teacher. I noticed over the years that the boys and girls in my classrooms were having quite distinct experiences.

One example of gendered tendencies as expressed in language use is the way I have begun to write this book. I have already used a gendered tendency by using personal anecdote. This is the writing 'voice' I am most comfortable to use. Why might this be? Apparently, this personal revelation style is something understood by my society as 'feminine' because it is viewed as relatable and accessible. (In 1990, Deborah Tannen identified this as 'relational' talk.) This relational style might serve my purposes here quite well – to draw you in by making you feel a personal connection; or it might limit my authority by undermining the legitimacy of what I might have to say. In addition, this style interacts with each reader in a unique way. But regardless, my performance of gender and its particular recognition by you, the reader, matters a great deal to my message: how we speak reveals our gendered tendencies, and it also continues to perpetuate these tendencies. Your reaction to this style of relational writing tells us something about you, too. Those with more 'feminine' sensibilities may well find this way of communicating rather engaging, whereas those with more experience with 'masculine' discourse patterns, particularly when it comes to academic writing, may find this personal touch annoying and distracting. Importantly, these gendered roles have less to do with which sex we were born with and more to do with our surrounding society's values, norms and expectations.

In this book, I seek to introduce you to the sociolinguistic field of gender; that is to say, this book is an introduction to sociolinguistics as a field of study that is concerned with the use of language (both its powers and its limitations) through and with the lens of gender. My hope is that this beginner's guide will be accessible as well as engaging for you, and that it will inspire you to continue to explore and reflect on the ways gender identities impact our communication and how our language use impacts our gender performances. Gender is a major part of who we are and why we behave in certain ways, and so it is worthwhile to consider the many places that gender and language intersect. Social scientists have been curious about such things for a very long time. My hope is that the ideas in this book help to orientate you to this dynamic field of research. This first chapter addresses the development of the field known as 'Gender, Sexuality and Language' by addressing some key concepts that have propelled past research. What follows is a discussion of key concepts and terminology used in the field.

Feminism: A Quick Review

The Oxford English Dictionary defines feminism as 'the policy, practice, or advocacy of the political, economic and social equality for women'. This definition is helpful enough but there are strong connotations around the word 'feminism' that a dictionary definition cannot adequately explore. Today's feminism is a diverse phenomenon with a very long history. The current field includes three main camps.

1. Liberal feminism, which seeks primarily to watch and comment on society's portrayal of women as indicative of society's patriarchal attitudes and values;

2. Socialist feminism, which sees patriarchy alongside social class issues of dominance and power and in need of challenge; and

3. Radical feminism, which views women as oppressed by society and seeks to challenge power relations between women and men.

This book comes from a liberal feminist position because of its main aim to comment on society's portrayal of gender. Other variations include, among many others, psychoanalytic feminism, queer feminism, post-modern feminism, Islamic feminism, Jewish feminism, Christian feminism and post-structural feminism.

Feminism is a bedrock in Women's Studies or Gender Studies within academia, but it is also a specialty area within other academic disciplines such as Education, the Humanities, Fine Arts, Health Sciences and within all the Social Sciences, including Anthropology, Linguistics, Communications and Psychology. Some feminist scholars explore gendered ways of speaking, learning, thinking, writing, creating, performing and counseling as well as investigate gender-specific health or medical concerns, family and domestic realities, and legal rights and access to representation. There are also those focused on the...