Gender and Language.docVIP

Gender and Language 　　中图分类号：H0 　　文献标识码：B 　　文章编号：1007-7316-（2014）01- 　　Language reflects its speakers’ customs and thoughts. When one pays attention to gender problems in language， one easily finds sexism in language. This sexism is based on the ways women are spoken of and the ways women are supposed to speak. Language reflects the marginality and powerlessness of women and this phenomenon is pancultural. The lack of the female imaginary occurs in many different languages， including English and Chinese. Monique Witting， who is a French feminist theorist， argues that after eliminating the concept of women， there would be one kind of human being on Earth， so this language disruption would annihilate the phenomena of sexism in both language and society. Her theory ignores the fact that women objectively exist and language must reflect that. If women are to begin the process of rediscovering themselves， they must write themselves and speak themselves， using the infinite richness of their individual constitutions to effect change in the patriarchal societies which restrict them （Cixous 215）. Robin Lakoff asserts that through creating new， positive feminine words， people’s attitude towards women and women’s disadvantaged position would be changed. Though some of the suggestions to eliminate sexism in language are bold and would be hard to effect in a short term， the critics’ attention on sexism in language and their attempts to solve this problem would change status quo sooner or later， for thinking is the beginning of a change. 　　As an avant-garde of the French women’s liberation movement， Monique Witting is a post-structural feminist. Witting clarifies the power of language， which transcends into a “straight mind” that forms a “straight society” （Witting 288）. In the straight society， the vulnerable groups and minorities are regarded as “different/others” （288）. Thus， the root solution to change the straight society is to change the language. According to Witti