Language matters
why gender free language concerns you?
If u r somehow a normative person, the feminisms, had bothered you at least once. If you are a woman, you faced times where you wasn’t discriminated/didn’t agree with a given action, were for women cause but found certain acts too radical, exagerated, inaccuate… as a man you might have wondered ackward to be part of the enemy even if you was always kind with woman and supported their cause. You probably isn’t interested in violating women rights, or even supported the movement - so how on earth we ended up here.
If you feel somehow frustrated by the issue… it simply shows how frustrated you are with our language. Today, it is hard to talk about women and men not because of people but because gender related terms is so far fetched from reality that we don’t have the right words and syntax to express the problem.
the problem with gender biased language isn’t that all men abuse women nor that all women are subjected to discrimination and inequality.
the problem is simply that statistically and unproportionaly women are subjected to discrimination and suffer from abuse.
Yet, there is no proper word for this. Women doesn’t describe this.
in other words, we cannot talk about a problem that will only grow and increase, as inequalities would continue to raise to the surface.
If you are afraid a woman would accuse you just because she can, if you believe a men can discriminate you… you actually express a problem that can be addressed by a feminist language.
A social reason - decrease the violence around you.
Lanaguage does shape our vision.
Biased language does discriminates and propagates sterotypes.
When engagements and promises are kept only verbally it steers frustration. When those promises are stated to be fulfilled even if the aren’t - they creates a dictatorship of language - that is the words don’t carry the well known meaning but rather are used to hide, banalize another problem. This violence then stirs violance.
Say I promised to pay you a salary. Then after, after being accused of ignoring my duties I state: « don’t exaggerate, it isn0t that imortant, or « you can not accuse me just because I am employer.
Gender biased language encourages this usages. it deprives women from standing up fir their rights and it stirs frustrations. Moreover, it values the notion that I can do whatever I can, as long that I can, rather, even if it is wrong.