language and gender

Biological Distinction Between Sexes:

• Sex is typically categorized as male or female based on reproductive anatomy and genetic differences, primarily defined by the presence of XY or XX chromosomes.

• anatomical differences between larynx length and frequency/vibrations and genitalia.

Dichotomous Thinking:

• the sex binary: male vs. female

Concept of Intersex:

• german endocrinologist Richard Goldschmidt coined the term intersex in 1915. Goldschmidt orininally used the term to describe spongy moths with atypical sex characteristics, but later applied it to humans with physcial sex ambiguities

• before Goldschmidt’s term, intersex people were often referred to as “hermaphrodites”

• Goldschmidt’s term “intersexuality” became popular after Anne Fausto Sterling published her 1993 article “The Five Sexes”

• The medical community introduced the term “disorders of sex development” in 2005, but this term is controversial and should be avoided

• The term intersex is broad and encompasses a variety of traits and presentations

Complexity of Biological Sex:

• biological sex is a combination of multiple factors:

  • chromosomes: while most people have XX (female) or XY (male) chromosomes, some individuals have variations like XXY (klinefelter syndrome), X0 (Turner syndrome), or other chromosomal anomalies, which challenge the binary model

  • hormones: hormonal levels (testosterone, estrogen, etc.) can vary widely and may not neatly align with the XX/XY framework

  • genitalia and secondary characteristics: some people are born with ambiguous or atypical genitalia , which can occur in intersex conditions like androgen insensitivity syndrome or congenital adrenal hyperplasia

  • internal reproductive anatomy: variation in internal anatomy (e.g. the presence or absence of ovaries, testes, or uteruses) further complicate strict categorization

  • These variation demonstrate the biological sex exits on a spectrum, not a binary. The term intersex is not often used to refer to these variation.

What is CAH:

• a group of rare genetic disorders that affect the adrenal glands, which are small organs located on top of the kidneys. These glands produce vital hormones like cortisol, aldosterone, and androgens (sex hormones). In CAH, an enzyme deficiency disrupts the adrenal glands’ ability to produce these hormones in normal amounts, leading to hormonal imbalances

  • Causes: CAH is caused by mutations in genes responsible for producing enzymes involved in hormone synthesis, most commonly the 21-hydroxylase enzyme, encoded by the CYP21A2 gene. The condition is inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern, meaning a child must inherit one mutated gene from each parent to develop the condition

  • Hormonal Effects: cortisol deficiency: cortisol helps regulate metabolism, blood pressure, and the stress response which can lead to fatigue, low blood sugar, and poor stress tolerance, aldosterone deficiency: aldosterone helps maintain salt and water balance in the body, it’s deficiency can cause dehydrations, low blood pressure, and salt wasting. Excess androgens: because the body struggles to make cortisol, it overproduces androgens as a byproduct leading to features of androgen excess

  • Classic CAH (severe): appears in infancy or early childhood, includes two subtypes ( severe: Salt-wasting CAH and less severe: Simple Virilizing CAH). Symptoms such as ambiguous genitalia, normal genitalia but later symptoms include rapid growth early puberty and possible fertility issues, poor growth, low blood sugar, and electrolyte imbalances.

Klinefelter Syndrome: a genetic condition in which males are born with an extra X chromosome. Instead of the typical 46,XY chromosome pattern found in males, individuals with KS have 47,XXY, although variations like 48,XXXY or 49,XXXXY also exist in rarer cases.

• Cause: KS results from a random error in cell division during the formation of sperm or eggs, leading to an extra X chromosome in a male, it is not inherited but occurs sporadically.

• Prevalence: it is one of the most common chromosomal disorders, affecting approximately 1 in 500-1000 males

• physical characteristics: tall stature with disproportionately long arms and legs, small testes, reduced testosterone levels, gynecomastia (enlarged breast tissue), sparse facial and body hair

• reproductive issues: infertility due to low sperm production or azoospermia (no sperm), delayed or incomplete puberty.

Sex Binary Legal Issues:

• “sex designation” is not treated as a fixed category

• compare biological sex to income, education, etc. (mobility across categories

Exaggerated categories

• dichotomous thinking led to the concept of “exaggerated categories” much of science and society focuses on the dichotomy and differences: the sex binary

• this erases (1) variation within categories and (2) variation at the category boundaries

• gender construction build on biological sex differences and exaggerates them.

Sex vs. Gender

The term “gender” in language and gender studies has its origins in linguistics but evolved into a broader concept in social sciences

Linguistic Origins:

• Latin and Old French Roots: the word “gender” comes from the Latin word “genus”, meaning kind or type. It was later adopted into Old French as “gendre” and then into English. Originally “gender” referred to grammatical categories in languages

Grammatical Gender:

• in linguistics, gender was used to classify nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in certain languages (e.g. masculine, feminine, neuter). This usage remains in languages like French, Spanish, and German.

Shift to Social and Cultural Contexts:

1. 19th and Early 20th Centuries: scholars like sexologist John Money began using “gender” in the mid-20th century to differentiate between biological sex (male/female based on anatomy and chromosomes) and social roles, behaviors, and identities. He is known for his theory of gender neutrality: the idea that children’s gender identity is malleable if the social environment aligns with with the chosen gender.

2. Second-Wave Feminism and Gender Studies: in the 1960’s and 1970’s, feminist theorists adopted “gender” to explore how society constructs roles, expectations, and behaviors for men and women. Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex, famously declared, “one is not born, but rather becomes a woman” emphasizing the distinction between biological sex and gender as a social construct

3. Judith Butler and Postmodern Theories: in the 1990’s philosopher Judith Butler expanded the concept of gender, arguing in Gender Trouble that it is not a fixed identity but a performance shaped by societal norms and repeated behaviors. This perspective highlighted that gender is fluid, dynamic, and culturally specific.

Semantic Instability for Female Terms: female terms tend to change faster and so they change their meaning so radically that it barely resembles the original meaning (ex. spinster was just an occupation and then began to denote an unmarried woman)

Adjectives and Modifiers: female and male modifiers are rarely similar, (ex. repressed spinster vs. repressed bachelor), female terms have a very strong tendency to become devalued

In basic female terms, if the noun is changed to a verb, it adopts a sexual connotation (ex. womanizer). The male parallels does not create the same pattern (ex. “manizer”* is not a term)

Even if we try to create an exact parallel, sometimes it can work, but most times the female terms will change more quickly than the male, and therefore gender neutral terms would be preferable to create an equal parallel for terms (ex. server instead of water/waitress)

Cabin

My Definition: A cabin is typically a shelter in nature, away from modern civilization

Dictionary: a private room on a ship or boat, a compartment below deck on a boat used for living accommodations, the passenger or cargo compartment of a vehicle (such as an airplane or automobile), the crew compartment of an exploratory vehicle (such as a spacecraft), a small one-story dwelling usually of simple construction

Bodyguard

My Definition: someone who is appointed to protect someone, typically of importance

Dictionary: a usually armed attendant or group of attendants whose duty is to protect a person

Bar Bouncer:

My Definition: someone who checks IDs outside of bars to make sure everyone is of legal drinking age

Dictionary: a person who is paid to stand outside a bar and keep order by removing troublemakers and preventing people from entering who are not allowed

Chef

My Definition: someone who is hired to prepare meals

Dictionary: a skilled professional cook

Custodian

My Definition: someone who is hired to clean a building

Dictionary: one that guards and protects or maintains

Experience dictates meaning, and connotations can develop ulterior definitions than what’s stated in the dictionary. The dictionary will rarely define a term in a gender specific way, whereas its common for speakers.

Research Questions:

In what contexts are ‘woman’ and ‘lady’ mutually exclusive?

• recall Lakoff’s discussion of the differences between lady/woman in occupational contexts (lady doctor vs. woman doctor

In what context are ‘woman’ and ‘lady’ in free variation?

• Lakoff claims that lady/woman are interchangeable in some contexts.

Does ‘lady’ function as a euphemism for ‘woman’?

• recall that ‘woman’ can trigger a sexual connotation and therefore requires a euphemism (Lakoff)

Linguistic contexts:

• expectation of differences by context (Meier 1999)

  • non traditional: chair of committee, lawyer

  • traditional: church, recipe, crafts sale

Predictions (Meier 1999):

Non-traditional contexts: preference for “woman”

(a) did you see the woman/lady who is chair of the conference committee

(b) Why don’t you hire a woman/lady lawyer

Traditional contexts: preference for “lady”

(a) a woman/lady from the church served us the meal

(b) his wife went to a crafts sale with some other woman/lady in the neighborhood

© the recipe was sent in by a woman/lady from Ohio

Functions of Gender Terms:

• General term of reference

• occupational modifier (woman lawyer, woman driver)

In Class Activity:

• What meaning does ‘man’ have in each of the examples below?

  • “Dogs are a man’s best friend” : broad term for human, not necessarily specific to men in this example, but people in general (mankind)

  • “Be a man and ask her out” : be strong/confident, man is seen as a brave sense of being

  • “It’s my old man” : referring to an older relative, usually a father/father figure, representing the patriarchy

  • “oh man” : bummed out, disappointed

• What meaning does ‘guy’ have in each of the examples below?

  • “What are you guys up to today”: general population, not restrictive to gender, but to group

  • “I’m going to be the bad guy for a minute” : villain, doing something others would frown upon

  • “Shall we put this guy away" : guy referring to personification of an object.

Main Issues:

• Language Functions: referential naming function, male-specific (+male, +human) as core meaning.

  • develops gender-neutral meaning, +male feature is erased (what’s the consequence of erasing male feature?), +human features switches to -human (the opposite value)

• Affective Functions (emotions): expand the range of interjections (oh, my gosh, man, etc.)

• Introduce changes in language structure (grammar): expands the range of plural markers (y’all, you guys, etc.), expands the vocabulary via the compounding mechanism (freshman, woman, garbage man, etc.)

Roadmap:

• semantic features: define primary meaning in terms of features

• connotations (in ‘be-contexts’): male terms become adjective-like

  • ex. be a man

Clancy’s Approach:

• primary meaning: male human being (male+, human+)

  • “look at that man over there” term of reference, naming or referential function

• peripheral meanings: human race, linguistically marked by the absence of articles ‘a/the’ (ex. “dogs are man’s best friend”)

  • interjections/emphasis word