Voices Let's Talk About Gender, Essay

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Kaminer, in her own voice, mentions, too, in that paragraph, that in its verdict, the Supreme Court "managed, barely, to outlaw discrimination based on gender," implicitly noting that the sexist Price Waterhouse "voice" (as represented by that partner) was drowned out by the more objective "voice" of the Supreme Court. (Within this context, though, Kaminer also presents the sexist Price Waterhouse partner's "voice" as the whole firm's "voice," which may or may not have been true. Similarly, in this same case, the Supreme Court "spoke" its verdict in one "voice" (although there was considerable dissent, since, according to Kaminer, the Court "just barely" "managed" the verdict).

Also, in Kaminer's view (voice) the Price Waterhouse complainant suffered sex discrimination (i.e., a generalized hostility toward women, but directed in this instance at herself), while, on the other hand, Joseph Oncale, "a former oil rig worker who claimed to have been subjected to highly sexualized, physical assaults and threatened with rape by his male colleagues" (paragraph five) instead suffered gender discrimination, not sex discrimination. Oracle was a slight man, harassed by other men at work due to his non- masculine look. Still, no discrimination occurred in that case against men in general (as it did in the Price Waterhouse case). Within paragraph five, Kaminer juxtaposes her own (dominant) voice against the voices of (1) the Supreme Court; (2) a Price Waterhouse partner; (3) Joseph Oncale, and (4) the Supreme Court again, to make the overall point (in her voice) at the end of paragraph five, that, based on these two examples (provided in voices besides hers) the words "sex" and "gender" should not be used interchangeably.

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In this paragraph and others (for example, paragraph two) Kaminer uses various voices besides her own to provide examples of instances and/or contradictions within human speech that help to support an overall point she seeks to make. This pattern of the way Kaminer employs these various alternative voices to help make her own point can be clearly seen throughout the essay, but especially in the first; fourth; fifth, sixth, and seventh paragraphs of the essay.

In the sixth paragraph, Kaminer briefly employs "voices" of school systems, districts, and perhaps administrative personnel, in order to take issue with schools' current use of terms like 'same sex schools' and 'same gender schools', places where, as Kaminer muses (again in her own voice) perhaps "men learn to walk like women and women learn to whistle." In the seventh and final paragraph, though, Kaminer credits the careful voice of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, as having been one of the very few to use the word "gender" correctly, and thereby [as the implied voice of Kaminer also suggests]encourage its correct use by others.

Throughout the essay, Wendy Kaminer's authorial voice dominates all others. As the author, Kaminer decides just when to use her own voice, and just when to use voices of others, alternatively, to offer examples of why the particular main points she makes about gender and language are valid. The essay "Let's Talk about Gender, Baby" offers a skillful, powerful, and, I believe, effective "mosaic" of voices. As its author, however, Wendy Kaminer not only creates, but controls the framework of the mosaic, as well as all of its intricate patterns......

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"Voices Let's Talk About Gender " (2005, March 11) Retrieved May 16, 2024, from
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"Voices Let's Talk About Gender ", 11 March 2005, Accessed.16 May. 2024,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/voices-let-talk-gender-62925
   

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