LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 18:6 June 2018
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
         Renuga Devi, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.
         Dr. S. Chelliah, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

Language in India www.languageinindia.com is included in the UGC Approved List of Journals. Serial Number 49042.

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Feminism and Humanism – Issues and Concerns

Srijani Mondal, Ph.D. Research Scholar

Abstract

Language is the basic means of communication. The paper focuses on gender differences in talk to discourse and the social/textual/linguistic construction of gender. Several studies identified sex-exclusive linguistic features that are features used only by women or only by men, within a given speech community. Sex-exclusive’ uses of language occur rarely and contrast with the common sex-preferential uses. These refer to differential tendencies in which women and men tend to talk differently from each other in a given context. Sex-preferential’ phonetic, intonation, lexical, syntactic and wider interactional tendencies have been identified.

Different phases of Feminism can be seen as the driving force behind the male dominance and cultural difference approaches to the study of gender and talk. Feminism in general and feminist theory in particular also drove the subsequent critique of dominance and difference as a single approach. The word humanism has been freely applied to a variety of beliefs, methods, and philosophies that place central emphasis on what it means to be human. Frequently, the term is used with reference to a system of education and mode of inquiry that developed in northern Italy during the 14th century and later spread through Europe and England. Alternately known as renaissance humanism, this program was so broadly and profoundly influential that it is one of the chief reasons why the Renaissance is viewed as a distinct historical period. The humanistic approach has its roots in phenomenological and existentialist thought. Eastern philosophy and psychology also play a central role in humanistic psychology, as well as Judeo-Christian philosophies of personalism, as each of these approaches shares similar concerns about the nature of human existence and consciousness. It is also sometimes understood within the context of the three different forces of psychology: behaviourism, psychoanalysis and humanism. Behaviorism grew out of Ivan Pavlov's work with the conditioned reflex and laid the foundations for academic psychology in the United States associated with the names of John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner. This school was later called the science of behavior. Abraham Maslow later gave behaviourism the name "the second force". The first force came out of Freud's research of psychoanalysis, and the psychologies of Alfred Adler, Erik Erikson, Carl Jung, Erich Fromm, Karen Horney, Otto Rank, Melanie Klein, Harry Stack Sullivan, and others. These theorists and practitioners, although basing their observations on extensive clinical data, primarily focused on the depth or unconscious aspects of human existence.

Keywords:

Introduction

Patriarchy literally means rule of the father in a male-dominated family. It is a social and ideological construct which considers men (who are the patriarchs) as superior to women. Sylvia Walby in Theorising Patriarchy calls it a system of social structures and practices, in which men dominate, oppress and exploit women (Walby 1990). Patriarchy is based on a system of power relations which are hierarchical and unequal where men control women’s production, reproduction and sexuality. It imposes masculinity and femininity character stereotypes in society which strengthen the iniquitous power relations between men and women. While subordination of women may differ in terms of its nature, certain characteristics such as control over women’s sexuality and her reproductive power cuts across class, caste, ethnicity, religions and regions and is common to all patriarchies. This control has developed historically and is institutionalized and legitimized by several ideologies, social practices and institutions such as family, religion, caste, education, media, law, state and society. Thus feminist historiography made radical breakthroughs in redefining gender and patriarchies in the context of hierarchies of caste, class, community and ethnicity. Therefore, it is pertinent to underline several perspectives of feminism for a comprehensive understanding of patriarchy in terms of its origin, characteristics, nature, structures and persistence.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Srijani Mondal
Ph.D. Research Scholar
Centre for Linguistics
Jawaharlal Nehru University
New Delhi
India
srijani.mandal@gmail.com

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