LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 15:5 May 2015
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.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

HOME PAGE

Click Here for Back Issues of Language in India - From 2001

BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!

REFERENCE MATERIALS

BACK ISSUES

  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.

  • PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES GIVEN IN HOME PAGE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LIST OF CONTENTS.

  • Your articles and book-length reports should be written following the APA, MLA, LSA, or IJDL Stylesheet.

  • The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.

Copyright © 2015
M. S. Thirumalai
Custom Search

Exploring Social Construction of Victims through
Gendering of Language: An Untold Account

Ms. Chandrabali Dutta, M.A. (Sociology), Ph.D. Scholar

Abstract

Language often facilitates the construction of certain social identities including gender identity. In our every day life language used about or for women as well as used by women and men are often gendered, which in some way or the other portray women less than an individual and very often substandard than their counterpart i.e., men. Thus it becomes easier to treat women with contempt, disregard their rights and reduce their existence, often to the extent of nullity.

The frequent uses of certain so-called offensive and sexist language (e.g., English words like ‘whore’, ‘slut’, ‘mistress’ etc., and also in Bengali and Hindi words like ‘haramjadi [synonym of English word ‘bitch’], ‘dajjal’ [implying very dominating], besya [prostitute], daini [witch] etc. and many more) not only devalue and marginalize women but also stigmatize and victimize them.

Yet this is hardly taken into concern as a serious issue for exploration, especially in India by mainstream-malestream social scientists. Gender and language researcher Laurel Sutton (1992) had once presented a host of slang terms used exclusively for female reference and that also categorize the referent’s body size and attractiveness. But she encountered virtually no such terms for male reference and even if some terms are used they are generally seen as categories that also apply to women. Since women generally encounter such similar derogatory terms on a daily basis they not only consider them as mere negative words but also accept the situation habitually as ‘natural’. Hence, they often yield to the surrounding state of affairs and, thus becoming gradually incapable even to recognize and realize the degree and intensity of their second-grade existence. Victimization and becoming victims become their integral part of daily life. Ergo, by remaining silent and subservient about language abuses in daily interactions, these abuses are legitimized as kernel distinguishing departure point between ‘good and bad’ women, between ‘Madonnas and Whores’.

Given this backdrop, the present paper attempts to explain how language becomes gendered over time for women in both public and private where they are time and again being marginalized and victimized and how linguistic uses act as a catalyst for disempowerment of women quite underhandedly, thus legitimizing patriarchal ensemble of relations, values and structures.

Key words: gendering of language, patriarchal, male-stream social scientists

Introduction

In contemporary social science research, gender is often perceived as an achievement or accomplishment that is something that people ‘do’ rather than simply having one, implying thereby that gender identity is a social construct rather than a ‘given’ social category. And now it is also a widely accepted fact that gender is often performed through language in a variety of ways. Though language is often considered to be an intermediary between the individual and society because of vital social functions like, communicating information, establishing and maintaining social relationships etc. it is also often portrayed as a symbolic resource that speakers can draw on selectively and strategically to perform masculine or feminine identities according to context (Mills, 1995:5). Now this relation between gender and language is one of the most attractive and significant areas of Sociolinguistics, which is basically the study of the interrelationship of language and society.

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

Ms. Chandrabali Dutta, M.A. (Sociology)
Ph.D. Research Scholar, University of Calcutta
122B, Ananda Palit Road
Kolkata – 700014
West Bengal
India
chandrabali_d@yahoo.com
Custom Search
  • Click Here to Go to Creative Writing Section

  • Send your articles
    as an attachment
    to your e-mail to
    languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Please ensure that your name, academic degrees, institutional affiliation and institutional address, and your e-mail address are all given in the first page of your article. Also include a declaration that your article or work submitted for publication in LANGUAGE IN INDIA is an original work by you and that you have duly acknowledged the work or works of others you used in writing your articles, etc. Remember that by maintaining academic integrity we not only do the right thing but also help the growth, development and recognition of Indian/South Asian scholarship.