• Magda Oiry

• Linguistics Department
• UMass Amherst
This week

• Assignment 5 due on Monday,

April 29
• Quiz 5 on this last unit will be up
on May 3
• Survey Assignment 6 is due on
May 1:
• Make sure you interview 4
people and yourself, fill out
the survey five times and
submit a summary only once.
This week’s topic

• Might push a few of your buttons…

• Because all of you are concerned by the
topic at hand: you occupy a place in
society, and you are a product of your
environment, culture, religious beliefs,
family,...
• So, this might a bit uncomfortable, but
the idea is to make a point, for you to
learn about critical thinking: languages,
habits, cultures, and our position in the
world affect us and affect the world.
• Remember: Language is power!
Safe space

• This class is designed to be

a safe place: we avoid
judgments even if we have
strong opinions, we try to
keep an open mind
because even I don’t know
everything, even though I
might appear to ;)
We do learn constantly. It’s a
very freeing feeling.
Main points of this class
• Gender is not sex
• Each one of YOU matters. When you don’t share who you are, we lose
a unique perspective on the world, as your voice is unique - -literally
and figuratively

All humans and all different: our differences lay not only on gender but
on sex, gender expressions, color of our skins, origins, cultures, minds
(different qualities but a common behavior), education, societies,…:
Who we are shapes us and defines us, and this is how the world sees
us. But we are unique at our core with human commonalities.
Today’s take-home messages
• Languages express gender differently
• Long-standing preconceived binary ideas about men and women
• Differences and treatment of people are cultural, created and
entertained by societies, not resting on any biological reality

• Think about history: slavery, the Holocaust, genocides, treatment

based on biases against people seen as ‘different’. Different from
who(m), for who?
• There is an overwhelmingly amount of crimes against Black,
Indigenous, people of color and LGBTQIA+
Name stereotypes
associated to
genders
• List a few qualities
usually associated
to genders

Whether you
think they hold
true or not
 First off: what genders did you refer
to?

We will look at gender from a binary

Gender
perspective first
stereotypes
In order to deconstruct, we need to
know what stereotypes hold for
genders
Some stereotypes based off
Genders

• Women are weak, men are stronger

• Women are more indirect, men more direct
• Women/Men talk a lot
• private spaces versus public spaces?
• Women are more emotional (have emotions), cry all the time
• Men don’t have feelings (no emotions), a real man shouldn’t cry
in public
Us versus them
Double standards
Society impose binary attributions to gender roles, which
have very little to do with Biology (a.o.).
All humans, all different
experiences
Typical men roles being challenged: see influencers
and motivational speakers Shola Richards and DDW -
his twin brother – Doyin Richards.

Typical women roles being challenged: feminists

There is an inherent complexity in us, human beings

– see egalitarian views (philosophy)
All humans, all
different
experiences
• Color of the skin, social class, access
to education have consequences
that lead to different experiences,
because a.o. things we face people’s
biases (we all have biases): it is not
helpful either to erase or avoid
talking about differences, because it
is the truth of our experience, our
life and our complexity. It shapes us.
Knowledge is power. Deconstruction
helps us.
When we stop at a
binary representation,
why do we do so?
Is it our ancestors’
history, the one we carry
in ourselves (we are all
Sapiens)?
Is it biology?
Is it society?
Sex versus
gender
Let’s look at biology

Sex is not binary in biology

Sex refers to a set of factors that

determine whether an individual is
considered biologically female, male
or intersex: sex is a spectrum
Chart from
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/
sa-visual/visualizing-sex-as-a-
spectrum/
Gender refers to whether an
individual identifies as male, female
or ‘somewhere in between’, neither
or fluid.
Chart from
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/sa-
visual/visualizing-sex-as-a-spectrum/
Sex is a reality but is not binary
• Sex is a biological category (male, female, intersex), gender is a cultural
category (‘man’, ‘woman’,…)
• Harari (2014): “A man is not a Sapiens with particular biological qualities
such as XY chromosomes, testicles and lots of testosterone. Rather, he fits
into a particular slot in his society’s imagined human order. His culture’s
myths assign him particular masculine roles (like engaging in politics),
rights (like voting) and duties (like military service).”
• “Likewise, a woman is not a Sapiens with two X chromosomes, a womb
and plenty of estrogen. Rather, she is a female member of an imagined
human order. The myths of her society assign her unique feminine roles
(raising children), rights (protection against violence) and duties
(obedience to her husband).”
• “Since myths, rather than biology, define the roles, rights and duties of
men and women, the meaning of ‘manhood’ and ‘womanhood’ have
varied immensely from one society to another.”
Harari (2014), Sapiens (p.180
on)
‘To make things less confusing, scholars usually distinguish between ‘sex’,
which is a biological category, and ‘gender’, a cultural category. Sex is
divided between males and females, and the qualities of this division are
objective and have remained constant throughout history.’ Sex biology is
not binary though (my own note)

‘Gender is divided between men and women (and some cultures

recognize other categories). So-called ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ qualities
are inter-subjective and undergo constant changes. For example, there
are far-reaching differences in the behaviour, desires, dress and even body
posture expected from women in classical Athens and women in modern
Athens.’
Ancient versus Modern Greece
‘Since most masculine and
feminine qualiTes are cultural
rather than biological, no society
automaTcally crowns each male a
man, or every female a woman.’

Harari 2014
Harari (2014), Sapiens (p.180
on)
“Males must prove their masculinity constantly, throughout
their lives, from cradle to grave, in an endless series of rites
and performances. And a woman’s work is never done –
she must continually convince herself and others that she is
feminine enough.’

‘Success is not guaranteed. Males, in parJcular, live in

constant dread of losing their claim to manhood.
Throughout history, males have been willing to risk and
even sacrifice their lives, just so that people will say ‘He’s a
real man!’ ’
18th century
‘Eighteenth-century masculinity: an
official portrait of King Louis XIV of
France. Note the long wig, stockings,
high-heeled shoes, dancer posture –
and huge sword. In contemporary
Europe, all these (except for the sword)
would be considered marks of
effeminacy. But in his time Louis was a
European paragon of manhood and
virility.’ (Harari, op.cit.)
 ‘Twenty-first-century masculinity: an
official portrait of Barack Obama. What
21st century happened to the wig, stockings, high
heels – and sword? Dominant men have
never looked so dull and dreary as they
do today. During most of history,
dominant men have been colourful and
flamboyant, such as American Indian
chiefs with their feathered headdresses
and Hindu maharajas decked out in silks
and diamonds. Throughout the animal
kingdom males tend to be more
colourful and accessorized than females
– think of peacocks’ tails and lions’
manes.’ (Harari, op.cit.)
 • ‘Another stereotype is that women can't be
violent or abusive towards men’
Stereotypes
• If we are saying women can be violent, does
mentioned in it mean we are saying men are not/can’t?

previous • Think again: we can hold true two truths

years about genders:
• Men can be violent and abusive
• Women can be violent and abusive
A bit of semantics

Men can be violent and

abusive (= some, not all) Women can be violent and
and doesn’t mean only abusive: (= some, not all)
men can be violent (in and doesn’t mean only
opposiTon to women, for women can be violent;
example)
 Semantics and slogans

It’s a hot topic in the US/world

Black lives matter does not mean only black lives matter; it means Black people (black men in more numbers, women
too) are getting more killed and imprisoned by the police force. The slogan is pointing out to a danger for black people in
the US (in France, the movement has been rising following Adama Traoré, the son of Malian immigrants, who died in 2016
at the hands of the police under circumstances similar to the death of George Floyd)

If you are interested: look up Showing up for racial justice (SURJ). The movement works to ensure that
majority-white communities join in multiracial coalitions to win racial and economic justice across the country
(founded 2010).
World Languages
and gender
Gender and language… does this play a role in
the way we speak?
• Across languages, we have three types
• Genderless: pronouns not marked for gender (does it mean gender-neutral?)
• Gendered: pronouns are marked for gender
• Natural gender: pronouns – It depends, sometimes gender-neutral exist
• What about people that do not identify as male or female, non-
binary? And gender fluid people?
http://askanonbinary.tumblr.com/pronouns
• http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34901704
 According to Aristotle, the Greek
philosopher Protagoras used the
terms masculine, feminine, and
neuter to classify nouns, introducing
Linguistic the concept of grammatical gender.
origins of
Gender Gender as a grammatical category
Languages • three types of languages
• natural gender
and how • gendered

gender is • genderless

expressed
 • don’t typically categorize non-
human, non-animal nouns into
male or female categories. A table
Natural and tree are it, while people
gender are he, she or them. Languages
include English and Swedish.
languages
 • like Spanish, German, and French,
both people and objects are given
a gender. A table, for instance, is a
feminine noun in French — “It is a
Gendered lovely(+fem) table!” (C’est une
languages belle table!)— while a tree is a
masculine noun in German. “I
planted him in the forest, where he
will grow very tall!”
 • Chinese, Estonian, and Finnish
which don’t categorize any nouns
as feminine or masculine, and they
use the same word for he or she
Genderless for humans. No gendered
languages pronouns (wriWen word is
different!)
Which language do you speak?
Gender across languages
• https://wals.info/feature/30A#2/26.7/148.9
Many languages specify Gender (and gender
agreement)
(1) Greek o antras i gyneka to paidhi
the.masc. man the.fem. woman the.ntr. Child
(2) German der man die Frau das Kind
the.masc. man the.fem. woman the.ntr. Child
(3) French l(e) homme la femme
the.masc. man the.fem. woman

F Indo-European languages tend to have gender distinction

Many others don’t!
E.g. English (lost it), Austronesian languages
But gender appears on pronouns:
(1) He le`.
(2) She le`.
(3) It le`. (what types of things does “it” refer to?)
• Gender correlates with other perceptual (and possibly grammabcal)
categories like humaness, agenbvity, and animacy.
(4) The girl broke the vase. It was rude.
(5) Das Mädchen hat den Vase gebrochen. {Sie/Es} war unanständlich.
Arbitrary of the
assigned gender
Gender expression is different across languages
Question: Should the contrast be taken
to suggest that German and Greek (1) Greek (2) French
speakers perceive the moon and the sun o ilios i selene le soleil la lune
differently? sun (masc) moon (fem) sun (masc) moon (fem)
Answer: Not really! It seems more
reasonable to believe that human German (2) die Sonne der Mond
conceptual structure remains constant
sun (fem) moon (masc)
in its core features across languages.
Dubious research (see Boroditsky) try to
point out that when Spanish versus
German speakers attribute different
value adjective – a bridge is strong
versus fragile (back to Whorf)
Boroditsky
• Work on gendered languages and how people associate nouns that
are marked for gender choose adjective typically associated for
feminine versus masculine traits.

• Look at https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-language-
shapes-thought/ that might be useful for your homework

• But please take this research with a grain of salt!!

 Second language speakers / bilinguals and
Gender
• What to expect?
• Have you encountered difficulties when learning a new language that
was gendered
hRp://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34901704