[Smt-talk] Domestic and International Gender Use Considerations

[Ninov, Dimitar N]

Dear Colleagues,

I would like to say a special "Thank you" to Professors Meeus, Shultz, McKay, and Grauer for bringing important insights into our discussion.

As some colleagues have wisely pointed out, a person whose native language is English shall be careful in judging the use of gender in other languages and in making suggestions for "democratization". For example, from the perspective of an American author, the French, Spaniards, Italians Russians, Bulgarians, and many other nations are constantly discriminating their female population through...grammatical rules! 

For example, if we write "students'' in English, we all know this is a generalization for both male and female students. In French, however, when both genders are present, the noun "etudiants" will be used, which is the masculine plural for students (versus "etudiantes", which is the feminine plural). Is this discrimination, and should the French female students feel offended by their grammar? As Mr. Grauer wrote, "What we must be willing to accept, however, is that certain "sexist" constructions are built into most languages". This is why I find the word "sexist" inappropriate and potentially offensive to other cultures, whose languages make official use of gender specificity. 

It is not a question of our willing to accept this fact, either - what are we going to do if we do not want to accept it? Shall we fight those nations and impose on them our vision of "linguistic democracy"? Or, shall we throw the word "sexist" at anyone whose native language officially uses grammatical gender discrimination?

The massive tendency of making English language more democratic cannot simply be "exported" into other languages as one exports goods abroad. If all of us are aware of this fact, there will be no such heat and emotional reactions to traditional use of English within some historically inherited norms. And people who learn foreign languages will understand that the expression "zero tolerance to sexist language" may be completely non-sensical in those languages and cultures. 

Thank you for your understanding, and best wishes for the weekend.

Dimitar

Dr. Dimitar Ninov, Lecturer
School of Music
Texas State University
601 University Drive
San Marcos, Texas 78666