LANGUAGE, GENDER AND

SEXUALITY
Week 8 (Mar 18)
LECTURE QUIZ 1 ON MAR 25, WEEK 9
❖ Time: Mar. 25, Week 9
❖ Venue: LTA
❖ Coverage:
◆ MCs & T/F (1pt each)
◆ Contents from Week 4 – 8 inclusive (Feb. 19 – Mar. 18)
◆ Introductory Lecture (Week 2) NOT included
◆ Lecture contents (PPTs & in-class delivery)

❖ Procedure (Two sessions as below):

◆ T01 – T10: 10:35am – 11:05am
◆ T11 – T20: 11.10am – 11.40am
◆ Please bring your own pencil, eraser, SID, and arrive 5 minutes earlier.

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AN INCIDENT (OCT 2023)
Rishi Sunak: “A man
is a man and a
woman is a woman,
and that’s just
common sense”

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ANOTHER INCIDENT (FEB 2021)

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/02/18/men-interrupt-women-tokyo-olympics/
“SEX” & “GENDER”
Sex
❖ A biological categorization
❖ Refers to the biological
apparatus – our chromosomal,
chemical, anatomical
organization.
❖ Is male and female.
(cf. Eckert & McConnell-Ginet, 2013; Kimmel & Aronson, 2017)
Gender
❖ Social elaboration of biological
sex
❖ Refers to the cultural traits and
behaviors deemed appropriate
for men or women by a particular
society.
❖ Is masculinity & femininity.
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SEX CATEGORIES & SEXUALITY
❖ Sex categories: based on the biological distinction - binary, mutually exclusive,
or a spectrum?

‘Two spirit’ people in hijras and kotis in India

Native American cultures 6
SEX CATEGORIES &
SEXUALITY
❖ Sexuality: An individual’s identity in terms of
his or her sexual activities.

▪ Sexual identities of being gay, lesbian,

straight, bisexual, transgender, queer…
▪ Performances & preferences in sexual
activities
▪ Intertwined with gender identity
(Wardhaugh & Fuller, 2015, pp. 312-3).
❖ Notion of heteronormativity: Gender-binary
or gender fluidity?
EVOLVING PERSPECTIVES ON
LANGUAGE AND GENDER

Power inequalities between ‘quest’ for differences

sexes as reflected in Constructionist approaches/
‘women’s language’ (The difference & dominance postmodern/poststructuralist
approach) approaches
(The deficit approach)

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 ❖ Danish
linguist
(1860–1943)

❖ Chapter in Language:
its Nature,
Development and
Origin (1922)

❖ Prime importance in
the history of feminist
linguistics &
discussions on
language and gender
OTTO JESPERSEN AND
‘THE WOMEN’
OTTO JESPERSEN AND ‘THE WOMEN’:
Women’s language developed because their “almost
exclusive concern with the care of children, cooking, brewing,
baking, sewing, washing, etc., things which for the most part
demanded no deep thought, which were performed in
company…and with a lively chatter” (1922, p. 254). Thus
relative to men, women speak more; leave more sentences half-
finished; use adverbs, adjectives and hyberbole excessively;
avoid “gross and coarse expressions”, and have a “preference
for veiled and indirect expressions” (1922, p.246).
 THE DEFICIT APPROACH:
THE ‘POWERLESS’ WOMAN

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LANGUAGE AND WOMAN’S PLACE
BY ROBIN LAKOFF
❖ Women’s language (WL): A way of
speaking that both reflects and produces a
subordinate position in society.

❖ Widely recognized as having launched the

feminist study of language and gender.

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FOR ROBIN LAKOFF,
Rife with hedges (sort of, I think), inessential intensifiers
(really happy, so beautiful), elaborate color terms (lilac
rather than purple), and tag questions (It’s a beautiful day,
isn’t it?)

Rendering women’ speech tentative, powerless and trivial;

Women’s language Disqualifying women from positions of power and
authority;

Learned as part of learning to be a woman;

Imposed on women by societal norms, and in turn it keeps
women in their place.
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QUEST FOR DIFFERENCE: THE
‘EMOTIONAL’ WOMAN & THE
‘DOMINANT’ MAN

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 DEBORAH TANNEN: YOU JUST
DON’T UNDERSTAND
Women and men communicate with the language
of their respective planets:
▪ Men employ the competitive language of
hierarchy and domination to get ahead;
▪ Women create webs of inclusion with softer,
more embracing language that ensures that
everyone feels okay;
▪ Women do rapport talk and men report talk.

Underlying premise: Men and women speak

differently. This is because society subjects
them to different life experiences. 15
AN ILLUSTRATION:
GENDER AND POLITENESS
Janet Holmes (1995, 2003):
▪ Most women regard talking as an
important means to keep in touch, and to
nurture & develop personal relationships.
▪ Men tend to see language more as a tool
for obtaining & conveying information.
▪ Women compliment others more often
than men do, and they apologize more
than men do too.
Are women necessarily more polite
than men? – It depends. 16
Complimenting or patronizing??

Holmes (1995, cited in Coates & Pichler, 2011), on New Zealand corpus

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 QUEST FOR DIFFERENCE,
SOCIAL AND BIOLOGICAL:
DIFFERENT ROUTES, SAME
DESTINATION

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THE QUEST FOR DIFFERENCE:
MARTIANS AND VENUTIANS?
Not only do women and men
communicate differently, but also they
“think, feel, perceive, react, respond,
love, need, and appreciate
differently” (Gray, 1992, p. 5)

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BIOLOGICAL DETERMINISM
❖Women and men are biologically different, after all.
Our reproductive anatomies are different, and so are our
reproductive destinies. Our brain structures differ, our
brain chemistries differ. Our musculature is different.
Different levels of different hormones circulate through
our different bodies (Kimmel & Aronson, 2017, p. xii).

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BRAIN, GENES AND EVOLUTION
Evolutionary psychology
Robin Dunbar (1996):
 The primary purpose of language is to gossip;

 Women were the driving force and playing a

primary role in language evolution…

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BRAIN, GENES & EVOLUTION
Rhawn Joseph (2000):
Over the course of human evolution … female mothers and
female gatherers were able to freely chatter with their
babies or amongst themselves … Unlike the men who must
remain quiet for long time periods in order to not scare off
game, the women are free to chatter and talk to their hearts’
delight.
Women: Gathering & children care → verbal skills
Men: Hunting → spatial skills 22
BRAIN, GENES & EVOLUTION

❖ Brain volumes: males > females (by

8-13%); with these differences
located in several regions, including
the language system (Ruigrok, et al.,
2014).

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BRAIN, GENES & EVOLUTION
Norman Geschwind:
❖ Sex differences begin in the womb, when fetal testosterone (FT)
affects the growth of both hemispheres;

slower development of
the left hemisphere (LH)
Higher levels of FT
in men spatial ability
faster growth of the right
hemisphere (RH)
(cf. Kimmel & Aronson, 2017)
 Meanwhile, the LH dominance for
language seems to be stronger in
men; women appear to make more
use of both hemispheres.

Bilateral representation for

language may explain why women
show better performance in verbal
skills – less likely to develop
aphasia, or to recover more
quickly (Baron-Cohen, 2004, pp.
206-7).
BRAIN, GENES &
©NewScientist

EVOLUTION
BRAIN, GENES & EVOLUTION
Research shows that females produce more
FOXP2 protein (Balter, 2001, 2013; Bowers,
et al., 2013, 2014, etc.):

❖ Females’ abilities to acquire and

produce language at a younger age
than males?
❖ Females’ precociousness in learning to
talk?
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AS FEMINIST LINGUISTS ARGUE,
❖ Search for difference in biology - “new
biologism” (Cameron, 2009)
▪ Speculative in nature
▪ Based on shaky evidence with
exaggerations/distortions
▪ At its early stage - far from conclusive
(Eckert & McConnell-Ginet, 2013, p. 4).
❖ Gender is a process of social construction.

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FURTHERMORE,
❖ To whatever extent gender may be related to
biology, it does not flow naturally and directly
from our bodies. These biological differences do
not determine occupation, gait, or use of color
terminology (Eckert & McConnell-Ginet, 2013, p.
5).

❖ The same linguistic differences may also

correlated with race and social class; many of the
sex differences that were seen biologically
based may vary historically and cross-culturally.

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SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONIST/
POSTSTRUCTURALIST
APPROACHES

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GENDER AND SEXUALITY AS
‘PERFORMED’
Aspects of gender identity (e.g., ‘feminine’ or
‘masculine’ behaviours) are not what we are, nor
traits we have, but effects we produce by way of
particular actions we perform: speech, body
language, dress, appearance and possessions
(Butler, 1990).

In other words, gender has to be constantly

reaffirmed and publicly displayed by repeatedly
performing such acts, until they are no longer
viewed as performance, but look ‘natural’ (e.g.,
studies on ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ identities, also
studies on drag artists e.g., by Butler 1990, and on
transgender identities, e.g., by Zimman, 2012) (cf.
Baxter, 2016; Jones, 2016).
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ESSAY TIME

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Selected references
• Baron-Cohen, S. (2004). The essential difference: Male and female brains and the truth about autism. New York: Basic Books.
• Baxter, J. (2016). Positioning language and identity: Poststructuralist perspectives. In Preece, S. (ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Language and Identity, pp.
34-49. New York: Routledge.
• Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity. London: Routledge.
• Cameron, D. (2007). The myth of Mars and Venus. New York: Oxford University Press Inc.
• Cameron, D. (2009). Sex/gender, language and the new biologism. Applied Linguistics, 31: 173-192.
• Dunbar, R. (1996). Grooming, gossip and the evolution of language. London: Faber.
• Eckert, P. & McConnell-Ginet, S. (2013). Language and Gender (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Holmes, J. (1995). Women, men and politeness. London: Longman.
• Jones, L. (2016). Language and gender identities. In Preece, S. (ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Language and Identity, pp. 210-224. New York: Routledge.
• Joseph, R. (2000). The evolution of sex differences in language, sexuality and visual-spatial skills. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 29(1): 35-66.
• Jule, A. (2018). Speaking up: Understanding language and gender. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
• Kimmel, M. (2016). The gendered society (5th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
• Kimmel, M. & Aronson, A. (2017). The gendered society: Reader (6th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Pauwels, A. (1998). Women changing language. London: Longman.
• Penelope, J. (1988). Prescribed passivity: The language of sexism. In The Nebraska Sociological Feminist Collective (eds.), A Feminist Ethic for Social Science
Research. Lewiston/Queenston: Edwin Mellen Press, pp. 119-38.
• Prewitt-Freilino, J. L., Caswell, T. A., & Laasko, E. K. (2012). The gendering of language: A comparison of gender equality in countries with gendered, natural
gender and genderless languages. Sex Roles, 66: 268-281.
• Romaine, S. (2003). Variation in language and gender. In Holmes, J. & Meyerhoff, M. (eds.), The Handbook of Language and Gender. Oxford: Blackwell.
• Ruigrok, A. et al. (2014). A meta-analysis of sex differences in human brain structure. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 39: 34-50.
• Tannen, D. (1990). You just don’t understand: Women and men in conversation. New York: Ballantine.
• Wardhaugh, R. & Fuller, J. M. (2015). An introduction to sociolinguistics (7th ed.). Wiley Blackwell.
• Zimman, L. (2012). Voices in transition: testosterone, transmasculinity, and the gendered voice among female-to-male transgender people. PhD thesis, University of
Colorado at Boulder.
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