Research Paper

                                                                   

Language, Gender and Power

Presented by:

1} Surbhi Gausvami (M.A. SEM: 3)

E-mail: gausvamisurbhi17@gmail.com

Mobile: 7490920184

2} Dharaba Gohil (M.A. SEM: 3)

E-Mail: dharagohil2907@gmail.com

Mobile: 9574488401

Smt. S. B. Gardi, Department of English

Maharaja Krishnkumarsinhji Bhavnagar University.

Abstract:

         An attempt has been made in this paper to enquire if women experience linguistic discrimination which reduces them to invisible frail creatures devoid of individual identity. Gender is not same as sex. The latter is being biologically male or female. Gender is constructed while sex is given. It is through language that we construct gender. We have vocabulary related to the behavior of izzat, haya, sharm etc. All these words are given to only particular gender that is female.

         According to French philosopher Jacques Derrida, we always find a binary opposition between man and woman. Woman always portrayed inferior to man. It is language that makes the all differences. Language always connected with the issue of power and ideology. Even the text of tools can be read through gender and power. Girls being more delicate must be given softer and harmless things. Boys being stronger can be given harder objects. Language of toy indicates that girls are weaker. These discourses are patriarchal and treat woman as inferior, gentler and requiring protection. Slang words are always connected with woman, there the language that plays a vital role to abuse woman. Several Bollywood movies explore the Language, Gender and power conflict such as Angry Indian Goddesses, Nil Battey Sannate, and Lipstick under my Burkha, Parched, and Pink. Gender is not something we are born with and something we have but something we do and something we perform, particularly through our linguistic behavior.

Key Words:  Power conflict and Gender, Linguistic discrimination, Power controls language.

Language and power

“…..there is not an external relationship ‘between’ language and society, but an internal and dialectical relationship. Language is a part of society; linguistic phenomena are social phenomena of a special sort, and social phenomena are (in part) linguistic phenomena”. People shape the language and language shapes people.

         This is very pertinent question that ‘What has gender got to do with either language or power?’ Gender is something which is constructed. And it is constructed through language. But where does language come in, you will ask? It comes in because it is through language that we construct gender. Our words, our sayings, our songs, our jokes, our stories and poetry — all these carry the values which construct gender. Language is a tool of powerful people in structuring and representing the world. Power controls the language. We live in a Patriarchal society, power structure is organized and work according to the will power of Patriarchy. They are in power so they dominate and subjugate other identity or gender.

        There are jokes, songs, matrimonial advertisements, proverbs, fairy tales, drama and fiction in which the familiar is rendered as unfamiliar; the seemingly innocuous turns out to be Machiavellian and we find the ugly face of racism and sexism behind the jokes we laughed at and the songs we enjoyed. The main point is that women are represented as unintelligent, boring (as wives and sisters but not as beloveds), chattering, emotional and cowardly in our public discourses. Our conventional wisdom in proverbs reinforces these negative stereotypes also. Advertisements, songs, poetry and drama also reinforce these stereotypes and also represent women as sex objects to the exclusion of all other aspects of their humanity. The lists of some of the terms, traits and attributes assigned to males and females are given to show how stereotypes about gendered notions of society are constructed. For example strong is used for males and weak for females, similarly independent vs. dependent, Wizard vs. Witch, Governor vs. Governess and Mister vs. Mistress, are some of the attributes or terms which clearly show that the words used for women are inferior.

         The lists of some of the terms, traits and attributes assigned to males and females are given to show how stereotypes about gendered notions of society are constructed. For example strong is used for males and weak for females, similarly independent vs. dependent, Wizard vs. Witch, Governor vs. Governess and Mister vs. Mistress, are some of the attributes or terms which clearly show that the words used for women are inferior. Females are always made silent beings and ignored. Some of the gendered stereotypes like “Women are less intelligent”, “Women are cowardly”, and “Women are confused”, etc. are common in our society. The main point is that women are represented as unintelligent, boring, chattering, emotional and capricious in our public discourses.

          Shahid Siddiqui is renowned Indian journalist and writer. His famous book “Language Gender and power” gives a lucid account of interrelationships between language, gender and power with a focus on South Asia. The book is of particular value because treatments of language and gender in this region have hitherto tended to lack a critical focus on questions of power. Dr Shahid Siddiqui, in his book ‘LANGUAGE, GENDER and POWER has brought into the readers’ attention, the hegemony of language, in relation with gender and power controlling various segments of society. The author has in fact, covered all the areas of social sciences, such as politics sociology psychology, history, education, and media. The writer points out that it was the language which dominated on the economy of Subcontinent in the colonial era. He views that it was the emergence of English Language which brought forth elite class. The writer has very well referred classical Nursery Rhymes, Proverbs and jokes which have projected women as weaker beings not only in South Asia but in the Western World also. According to the author it is basically the power of language which has attributed such words to women like: curious, unintelligent, talkative, irrational beings and so on. The author suggests that media should use its linguistics power to shape the minds and attitudes of society, instead of perpetuating the misrepresentation of women it should strengthen their image. The writer Shahid Siddiqui is in fact, of the view that if language can weaken the image of something valuable, in the same manner it can also strengthen the underestimated, disregarded and conventionally undervalued sections of society. According to the writer this can only be achieved by inculcating critical thinking in the learners through language teaching. The young generation should be infused and armored with linguistic power to use the same for uplifting the unappreciated bits of society. (Siddiqui)

          Language constructs sexual difference and power relations among groups. Language plays a vital role in structuring individual identity and human relations. Roles are given to the man and woman, predetermined before the birth. Therefore girls are treated in inferior way and language surrounds that behavior. Typical roles are given to the male and female such as;

“Ram khir kha” and “Sita kam kar”.

          Women always have to done household work. They are not born to be intellectual or brave. So they should remain in the house, this is stereotypical mindset of the society. All slang words are always related with female, which portray woman as inferior to man. We find a constructed mindset of society related to female that they have to live in ‘Parda’, they should behave in particular manner, girls should be beautiful, ”HAYA” and “SHARM” is considered as ornament that every girl should wear. Therefore all children’s game represents woman as fair and beautiful. So children’s minds are constructed from very initial phase that girl means something who is fair and beautiful. Therefore they will not accept less attractive woman.

             Social factors and attitudes play a vital role in shaping language because it is the social system within which we live that determines the linguistic choices we have available to us in ways that reflect our society’s main concerns. These effects imply that the language one speaks imposes constraints both on what it is possible to say and perhaps, more important, on what it is possible to think. Language is continually constructed in practice. Both language and gender are fundamentally embedded in social practice, deriving their meaning from the human activities in which they figure. Men and women are socially different as the society lays down different social rules for them and expects different behavioral patterns. Human society is tainted with sexism, which may be described as a system of beliefs, prejudices and behaviors by which a group of people are oppressed, controlled and exploited owing to gender differences. Unfortunately such differences are never allowed to retain their status and usually tend to become hierarchical in popular consciousness. Thus gender does not only refer to sexual differences but also to a set of socially-defined roles, and identity which people come to develop in the process of socialization involving power relations. Gender is related to language.

            What is meant by sexist language? Women experience linguistic discriminations not only in the way they are taught to use language but also in the way general language treats them. Female words are often negative, converging frailty and a sense of subordination as well as immaturity. The words associated with women generally undergo a process of semantic derogation. When the sexist language is accepted as part of our everyday interaction the subjugation of women becomes reutilized in daily discourse. The routine uses of forms that conceal or trivialize women reduce the salience and significance of women as a social category. Sexist language can be equated with social behavior which helps to create and maintain an atmosphere of inequality. In many traditionally acclaimed literary texts, mostly written by males, men are presented as strong, active and rational and women as weak, passive, and Emotional supporting an underlying belief in the superiority of male over the female As such images purport to represent reality, they contribute to an oppressive or restrictive model of femaleness, with which women are assumed to identify, thereby perpetuating inequality. Women’s lower position and dignity in the society may be attributed to the patriarchal structure of society. According to Tannen (1990) in order to be socially acceptable, women cannot exert Control and must support men in their control. In this casting of social power, men are not necessarily consciously flaunting power, but are simply rewarded by the social system. (Dutta)

           In ancient time most of the literature was written by male writer, right from the beginning such as great epic Valmiki’s ‘Ramayana’, Vyas’s ‘Mahabharata’, Milton’s ‘Paradise lost’ etc. These entire epic portrayed woman as emotional, soft, weak, -responsible for War.  Because all these epics were written by male writers. Literature is an important cultural practice which not merely reflects but also affects the way women are perceived. In the literary texts women are portrayed consciously or unconsciously in negative ways and such portrayals contribute to broaden cultural assumptions about gender differences.

           Observations of the differences between the way males and females speak were long restricted to grammatical features, such as the differences between masculine and feminine in morphology in many languages. However, in the 1970s women researchers started looking at how a linguistic code transmitted sexist values and Bias. Lakoff’s work (1975) is an example of this; she raised questions such as: Do women have a more restricted vocabulary than men? Do they use more adjectives? Are their sentences incomplete? Do they use more ‘superficial’ words? Consequently, researchers started to investigate empirically both bias in the language and the differential usage of the code by men and women.

         a) women talk more/less than men; b) women break the ‘rules’ of turn- taking less than men c) women use more standard forms than men; and d) women’s speech is less direct/assertive than men’s. Results in the analysis showed that there does not seem to be a distinguishable difference with respect to the usage of language by men and women potentially due to the establishment of an informal atmosphere during the recorded sample and to a sense of solidarity among participants, which enabled them to make use of the code to maintain conversation.

There are several Bollywood movies that explore the issue of power and gender, patriarchal society, gender inequality, control of language on particular gender, linguistic discrimination etc. Examples of movies are as follow…

1) ‘Angry Indian Goddesses’

          ‘Angry Indian Goddesses’ is the movie directed by Pan Nalin. It  portrays the important issue of gender inequality and power structure. It has seven women actors who fight for unique identity and against misogyny in their different world. Film celebrates womanhood and friendship. What hurts though, as a woman viewer, is the fact that under the guise of showing women as independent individuals, the director ends up portraying them as characters itching to turn the tables on men to get privileges that men typically enjoy in our current societal set-up. (Kaushal)

2) ‘Lipstick under My Burkha’00

            Lipstick under My Burkha is 2017 Indian black comedy film written and directed by Alnkrita Shrivastav. The film premiered at the Tokyo and Mumbai Film Festivals, where it won the Spirit of Asia Prize and the Oxfam Award for Best Film on Gender Equality. The story tells the tale of Rosy – the heroine of a (pulp Fiction) erotic novel. The young college going girl who loves jeans and Miley Cyrus and is a talented singer, but is forced to sew and wear Burkha that make her invisible to the world. The red lipstick that connects them all is the sign of the underlying freedom that every woman seeks. It is about all women living in the shadow of tyranny, and how they all choose to defy their lower middle-class society rules to find their own freedom. (Bhave)

3} pink

             Pink is a 2016 Indian courtroom drama social thriller film directed by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury. This movie is a strong example of power and gender conflict. Women characters fight for their identity throughout the film Pink is a powerful statement on the existing feudal mindset of a majority of India, where men and women are judged by a different yardstick. And if the man happens to be from a powerful family, then the fight for justice is even more skewed. Very beautifully film portrays that There is no importance of female voice in the society. When Minal, main woman character says ‘No’ it does not have any value. (Iyer)

Conclusion:

            The fight for gender equality in India still remains a steep task in our society where women, from womb to grave, face violent forms of gender bias such as female infanticide, apathy for the girl-child, sexual harassment and the menace of dowry. Women are not born, they are made. The making of a man or a woman is a never ending process that begins before the birth. It is because gender is not something we are born with, and something we have, but something we do and something we perform, particularly through our linguistic behavior. The predominance of masculine terms as hyponyms as well as the abusive words pertaining to the sexual conduct of women for which there is no male counterpart, portrays vividly the powerlessness of the females in the society. Gender is so deeply engrained in our linguistic system, in our understanding of ourselves and of others, that we almost cannot utter a single word before others, without taking gender in to our consideration thereby paving the way for hierarchical power dynamics where man is at the top and woman at the bottom. However as sensitive individuals it should be our constant endeavor to fight for gender equality in order to ensure an egalitarian society. Let us begin with the elimination with sexist language by using gender neutral terminologies not only in written forms, but also in daily conversational discourse so that we can do justice to both genders.

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Works Cited

Bhave, Nihit. The Times of India Emtertainment. 24 july 2017. 30 September 2017 <https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/movie-reviews/lipstick-under-my-burkha/movie-review/59645392.cms>.

Dutta, Hemanga. MAI Review,Article 2. 2008. 30 September 2017 <http://www.review.mai.ac.nz/index.php/MR/article/viewFile/171/177>.

Iyer, Meena. The Times of India. 23 January 2017. 30 September 2017 <https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/movie-reviews/pink/movie-review/54325066.cms>.

Kaushal, Sweta. hidustantimes. 5 December 2015. 30 September 2017 <http://www.hindustantimes.com/movie-reviews/angry-indian-goddesses-review-a-fun-ride-that-ends-in-cliched-seriousness/story-wbIsNJP65cIXcy45RLmSGK.html>.

Siddiqui, Shahid. 14 March 2017. 30 September 2017 <http://shahidsiddiqui.com/2017/03/14/language-gender-and-power-the-politics-of-hegemony-and-control-in-south-asia/>.