May 01, 2008
Male Generic Language
I find this flaw really interesting. So a while back I was reading in my comm. 200 book, "Thinking through communication," (Trenholm, 2008) and i noticed a couple times the use of male generic language. I bookmarked these spots, and came back to them thinking this might be a great thing to address for the blog. One of the uses I saw appears in a section entitled, "Increasing Relational Skills... More Effective Self-Disclosure." In the opening portion of the section, Trenholm says Self-Disclosure happens when, "one person voluntarily tells another person things about himself which the other is unlikely to know from other sources." Well, maybe that's just a typo, but like I said this happens a few other times throughout the book. It's odd, but somehow discovering this gendered language brings me a little joy. Not becuase I agree with it, but rather I like seeing these authors make some mistakes, I think it instills some humility. Does anyone else find this in their readings?
6 comments:
I notice this too when I read anything. When I was in high school it used to bother me too, because it seemed that they were only talking about males but what about the females. Why do people who proof-read the textbooks and such not say anything about this?
I am so used to seeing and hearing male generic language that it doesn't phase me that much. After taking this class I am a lot more aware of it and it makes me laugh sometimes how frequently it is used. I think it will never change because it is so ingrained in our society. That is humorous that generic language is used in the class text :)
Not only is it common to fine "male generic language" within text books and reading, but society has also changed the way we say things. In the past we used to say "actor" for a man and "actress" for a woman, but today it is perfectly acceptable for "actor" to mean both a man or a woman. Masculine and feminine seem to no longer have boundries, why is that?
I have to admit that realizing male generic language has been one the most eye opening experiences of this class. I never paid any attention to it before we talked about it in class. Now I see it everywhere, it is really hard to avoid it once you are aware.
this happens all of the time ...less and less today..but it still happens a lot. It doesn't really bother me at all...I don't think they where really intending women to be offended so why read into it so much?
It is interesting how often this happens. It wmake you wonder if they just weren't thinking about it or if it just made it sound better than putting himself/herself because that can get confusing and gets annoying too.
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