Do you ever have themes in different areas in your life reoccur in other, separate areas of your life? For instance, maybe a coworker will talk about an old kid's show that they used to watch, say Fraggle Rock, and then the next day all of the kids in your art class are talking about Fraggle Rock. This kind of stuff happens to me all the time, and it makes me feel as though I am in some sort of sitcom, and I am waiting for that transcending moment where the sitcom writers give me a catharsis via the lessons that can be gleaned from Fraggle Rock.
Or, more simply put, funny that you bring up sexism in language, because it's been on my mind a lot lately. And the more I think about it, the more I see it everywhere.
I basically agree with what "eye eye eye" is saying about sexist language, but I think that she (he?) didn't do a great job of articulating the point. I also can't stand it when people don't have good sentence structure, or when they use "U" instead of "You." Oh, it drives me nuts.
But back to the point. Typically in society today, a group of females is referred to as a group of "girls," and not "women." I think that eye eye eye is right in saying that this portrays women as children subconsciously, and insinuates that we are naive and incapable of adult thought. You'll see this a lot in media as well, with women being portrayed with larger, child-like eyes, childish hairstyles, and often modeling clothing that is more often geared towards little girls. Models in adverts are often shown with submissive body language. And our culture today has idealized the female figure as it is at age 12, an age where the hips and breasts are not fully developed and the bodies of girls and boys are often indistinguishable. Furthermore, the media does it's best to convince us that our worth is wrapped up in our size, and most women inwardly strive to hit that size zero, or in other words, a size nothing.
To me, being referred to as a "girl" on some level implies that I shouldn't be taken seriously. That I am all sugar and spice and everything nice, and that I can't be mechanically inclined, I can't open jars, and that I need someone to hold my hand through the big, scary world. Irony being that I occasionally refer to myself as a girl. DAMN YOU SOCIAL CONDITIONING!
I also realize that most people, when using this kind of language, aren't consciously thinking of demeaning women when referring to them as "girls." Again, it's just a byproduct of social conditioning, and ultimately it's leftover from a time when it was perfectly okay to objectify women. But it's 2012, and I personally open all of the stuck jars for my male room mate. So let's get with it and cut the girl talk.
I also catch myself referring to myself and my friends as girls, but on the flip side I also have called my husband a boy and his friends "the boys." I shelter myself from as much mainstream media as possible. I don't get any magazines, I don't have a TV, and I don't spend a lot of time on Facebook or You Tube. I have created a happy bubble where I forget how women are expected to look and act according to mass media. Then at a doctors office or at the grocery store I'll catch a cover that makes me cringe and hide my daughters eyes. Its sad to me that its been going on for so long and its so demeaning and untrue. That women are objects, that we don't have brains or initiative, and that our main purpose in life is to be pretty, thin, and bubbly. I think the best way to battle it is to prove the stereotypes wrong by being intelligent, confident, and to not care what anyone thinks about how you look. Hopefully with time our society will get bored with Barbies and will see women for what we are capable of. This issue has made me more conscious of subtle things I may say and do that could be regarded as sexist, and I will be more careful when writing my speeches. I agree that it was really hard for me to take the Flickr discussion seriously when no one bothered to write in complete words and sentences, I guess I'm old fashioned. Good for you being the can opener in your home!
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