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Linguistic Violence
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 <Background:
Linguistic utterances offer us many lessons about the inequalities
that pervade our society. Language itself is a source of inequality in our
lives. Particularly troubling is the presence of derogatory and violent
terms for women in English. As Muriel Schulz suggests, “a comparison of
the metaphors cat and dog illustrates the difference evident in many terms
designating male and female humans. The term for the female is more likely
to become pejorative, more likely to acquire sexual suggestions, and less
likely to be transferable to a male” (1990:141). The
Ads:
Almost all of the ads use the negative word "bitch" to dehumanize women.
Notice that some of the ads suggest that the term is a positive value for
women (as in #s 3 and 5). Discussion Questions: (1) Why is
linguistic violence of this sort often tolerated when, sometimes, there is
reaction against racist language (at least in advertising)? (2) Do you
know men or women who would tolerate ads such as these? If so, what
reasons would be given for their tolerating these ads? (3) What is the
effect of such linguistic degradation on children? >
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<presented by Scott A.
Lukas, Ph.D.>
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