“It's not often mentioned, some don't even see it as a problem, but women, in this country, are not represented in politics in anywhere near the numbers they make up in the population.” Despite such lamenting the scarcity of women running for political office, when women do run, they are referred to as former executive officers who run for governor, almost as if the fact that indeed a woman may occupy the office needs to be downplayed. Is this political correctness downgrading or upgrading?
"English is mercifully free of gender," says Bill Bryson in the mother tongue - mercifully, because English speakers do not have to worry about particular articles (such as der/die/das in German or le/la in French) to indicate a noun’s gender. Yet, English has many words that clearly signify gender. A bachelor is an unmarried male; his counterpart is a spinster. Although my politically correct computer alerts me here that spinster should be replaced with unmarried woman, it (or is my computer so picky because it is a she?) has no objections against my using the word bachelor. Neither does my computer find fault with the words ballerina or lioness, yet dismisses heroine and actress as gender-specific language that should be avoided. Gender specifications apparently are only acceptable when they carry a positive connotation, emphasize a favorable characteristic like the unusual strength of a lioness and the outstanding elegance of a ballerina, or the adorable – and upgrading - independence of a bachelor compared to the deplorable – and downgrading - loneliness of a spinster.
In many cases, nouns that denote a person are preferably “bisexual” (or “transsexual”?). One is a hero or an actor regardless of gender, and the only indicator of gender is the personal pronoun used to refer to that person: Was the actor praised for his performance, or was the hero risking her life?
Yet, despite the increasing use of gender-neutral nouns to describe a person, we still sometimes apply poetic gender to objects, phenomena or plants in an attempt to bestow them with human (can I still use the word human?) qualities. Usually, when objects, phenomena or plants are considered big, strong, active, they are referred to as he, while small, weak, gentle or passive items are given a feminine pronoun, as exemplified in one of Oscar Wilde's Fairy Tales where “the Oak-tree understood and felt sad, for he was very fond of the little nightingale who built her nest in his branches.”
Heaven, time, death, summer, winter, autumn, thus often are assigned the masculine pronoun. However, nature and spring, both considered life giving and clearly far from being passive, are feminine, and so are poetry, sculpture, astronomy, and art. The feminine gender here probably echoes the mythological goddesses Gaia and Demeter and the muses, who inspire the creation of literature and the arts. Similarly, planets like Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter are masculine or feminine according to the gender of their mythological namesakes. Thus, the sun is a he while the moon is a she because the Greek sun god was Helios (or Sol in Roman mythology) and the moon goddess Selene (or Luna in Roman mythology). The explanation that such gender attribution reflects the sun actively giving and the moon passively receiving light fails to account for the opposite casting in Norse mythology, where Sol was the sun goddess and Mani the moon god, wherefore in German the sun is a she and the moon a he.
So far, gender attribution to objects can be explained rationally. But why are ships, boats, cars and other means of transportation often referred to as she? Some claim that this is a sign of affection, or emotive coloring, others believe that it “expresses the relationship between a man and his tools since it is mostly found in men’s speech” (Brazeniene, "Stylistic Use of English Gender"). Now, here is something for feminists to be more concerned about than about the use of stewardess instead of flight attendant. Why should the female gender be used for tools of all things? (Here is some interesting stuff about humans and their tools.) If one considers stewardess as downgrading or woman driver as an insulting epithet, then the use of she to refer to let's say a wrench is even more downgrading and insulting. Just take an ad for a Toshiba laptop(!) that encourages the user to “open ‘er up.”
“Open ‘er up” might just as well be the battle cry of those who want the Catholic Church to be more transparent, especially regarding the increasing number of abuse cases. On Vatican Radio, Rev. Frederico Lombardi stated that “The way in which the church deals with it is crucial for her moral credibility.” Indeed, the Catholic Church is a she although traditionally women play rather minor roles in her system. This is similar to countries, which are it when they are treated as a geographical unit but she when they are viewed as a political enity – yes, Canada, too, where politicians right now fight over making the nation's anthem gender neutral by rephrasing the line "True patriot love in all thy sons' command." Maybe women who get on a ticket should consider those linguists who believe that the feminine gender is a sign of an affectionate attitude, forget about political correctness, and campaign as business women who run for governoresse.
No comments:
Post a Comment