Sexist Language

Salam everyone!

Let’s continue our discussion on sexist language as it is one area in Sociolinguistics where we find it interesting to talk about. It captures our attention when words and expressions which we utter in daily life are at certain circumstances sexist and gender-bias. We may be aware or unaware of it, but it is true. So we chose to discuss about sexist language to increase awareness and see its relation to Islam.

What do you understand about sexist language?

When we use word such as ‘man’ when we speak in front of the audience which includes both males and females, this is regarded as sexist and gender-bias. Why is it so? This is because we are excluding the females by using the word ‘man’. Instead, we must use ‘people’ or ‘human being’ to include both sexes on this earth.

Have you ever heard your teacher saying “Each student must bring his own drawing block tomorrow because we are going to use it in the Art class”? We believe that some of us have heard our teacher saying this during old school days. It is an advantage for us because we have learned sexist language in Sociolinguistics so then we can say that the teacher was being unconsciously sexist when he or she uttered the statement. This is because it is possible that there are also female students in the class, and the teacher should have said “Each student must bring his and her own …” or the teacher can also say “students must bring their own …” (gender-neutral) to include both genders.

Not to forget friends, although most of the time sexist language concerns with discrimination towards women, there are some circumstances where men are also being discriminated. However, we still need to find example of words which make males invisible.   

Of course we do not want to feel being excluded right? Therefore we need to avoid from sexist language as it can also cause people not to listen to our statement or speech when we keep on using words which describe and refer to man only and not woman or vice versa.

Here we provide some alternatives. For example we can use genderless titles such as ‘fire fighter’ for ‘fireman’ and ‘homemaker’ for ‘housewife’. 

In the next post, we’ll proceed with the IOK on sexist language.