Gender Pronouns and Their Problems Term Paper

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Pronouns & Feminism

The structure and science behind the English language is enamoring and enthralling to some. However, others have both poignant yet valid concerns about how inherently biased the English language is constructed and used even in modern day parlance. To be sure, this perceived bias goes to the very root of the English language as there are no gender-neutral pronouns and there are ostensibly no grammatical or lingual ways around this. While not everyone's language cues and habits are intentional and malicious, the structure of English as being slanted towards males is obvious and undeniable.

As explained by McWhorter, making just about any statement that relates to a person usually has to have an identifier that is gender-specific. This presents a problem when the gender of the person being spoken of is not known. This is explained in the book when people are trying to explain without assumption or presumption of gender that someone left a book behind. People try to get around this by using "they" or "their," but those words are obviously not technically accurate even if they are generally accepted as a way to avoid gender-specific pronouns. Even if that particular example could be negated, even if it still isn't "proper" English, by saying "someone left a book here," the point made by McWhorter is indeed a valid one. There is a duality of a problem in that the language of English is constructed with a clear bias towards men yet there is not usually a clear-cut way to get around that when saying certain things.

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Sure, using "police officer" instead of "policeman" makes sense but the general "genuflecting," as the author describes it, of people to avoid the appearance of assumptions or bias create unnecessary unease and problems even when no sexual bias is intended or projected, at least on purpose.

The reasons for the existence of this bias are clear based on the fact that the creators of most modern languages and dialects were almost all men. Why this has not urged the creation of a gender-neutral pronoun that has "stuck" is odd, but it is what it is, it would seem. Perhaps complicating things is that some roles and jobs are still very heavily tilted towards one gender or another. Most nurses and human resources staffers are women while most engineers and computer people are men. However, assuming that and thus using gender-specific pronouns as a result can lead to problems. Even people with names not culturally or ethnically related to the United States and/or their European predecessors can encounter issues as not everyone knows what names are "male" and which ones are "female." A more American example not used in the article would be someone assuming that a medical doctor is male based on their title but later finding out that the person is a female.….....

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