| 词组 | sexism |
| 释义 | sexism The women's movement has in recent years drawn considerable attention to the problems of masculine bias in the language. The issues here are social rather than linguistic, but like earlier social issues they will probably leave a mark on the language. Ebbitt & Ebbitt 1982 sensibly points out that the hard choices in word selection with respect to sexism have to be made by middle-of-the-roaders; the partisans—the militant feminists and the entrenched elderly males— have already made up their minds and are seldom in doubt. The areas where the thoughtful in-betweener will want to be alert concern nouns and pronouns. 1. It should be noted that a few traditional female occupational designations are also in transition. Stewardess, for instance, is being replaced by flight attendant. Such changes are again attributable in part to the fact that both men and women are now commonly employed in jobs that were formerly reserved for one sex or the other. Harper 1985 lists some of the new occupational names taken from various sources. A few—like private household cleaners for maids and servants—look more like euphemisms to disguise menial jobs than new descriptors to avoid sexual bias. Some years ago there was considerable interest in finding a substitute suffix for -man in a number of compounds like spokesman, chairman, congressman, and draftsman. The combining form -one was a failure; compounds like chairone simply looked too mysterious to be useful. The form -person has had more, but limited, success. Although loudly decried by some, such combinations as spokesperson, chairperson, and anchor-person have received wide enough currency to gain at least marginal dictionary recognition (see person 2). Draftsperson can be found in the want ads. Chairperson and anchorperson are in competition with the simpler and equally neutral chair and anchor. The -person compounds have also been somewhat retarded in their general adoption by some women who reject feminine and neutral forms for the older masculine forms, such as chairman and spokesman. And in some areas of endeavor, indeed, the existing masculine forms seem to be used simply as a matter of course; in women's basketball, for instance, no one seems chary of playing an aggressive man-to-man defense. The status of nouns ending in -ess is an older but related topic. Their use was urged by at least one 19th-century feminist and disparaged by several 19th-century male commentators (they were particularly hard on authoress and poetess). In the 20th century, there has been some changing of positions. This subject is treated in more detail at -ess. 2. • Each student must send his references with his application. In order not to seem to exclude women, this could be revised using the old expedient his or her: Each student must send his or her references with his or her application. If this seems wordy or "legalistic" (a term several commentators apply to his or her), you can try omitting the pronoun or substituting an article: • Each student must send references with the application. Another commonly suggested solution is to rephrase in the plural: • Students must send their references with their applications. Generally not recommended is the use of such obviously manufactured forms as (s)he and his/her, chiefly on the grounds that they are distracting. Not recommended on the same grounds is the alternation of masculine and feminine pronouns. A few authors have used the generic feminine pronoun ("Each student must send her references with her application"), but this too seems to be more distracting than useful. The folk, of course, have had a solution to this impasse for many centuries—one of stunning simplicity: they simply use the plural pronouns they, their, them. The folk solution exists more commonly in speech than in writing, and is probably more acceptable in references to indefinite pronouns such as anyone, someone, and everyone than to generic nouns such as the student of our made-up example. Since the 19th century, theorists have proposed remedying the lack of a gender-neutral singular pronoun with any number of invented forms, some of which make confections like s/he look almost sensible. There is a list of such forms at epicene pronouns. In conclusion, all we can offer as a general recommendation is that, being a thoughtful writer, you give some consideration to the question of careless or unconscious sexual bias in the language you use and, where you find it, seek a solution that makes sense in the immediate context. |
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