Between the Lines

The use of genders in foreign languages has long prayed upon my mind. Studying French and Spanish I am reminded daily of the fact that the masculine dominates.

Let me explain.

If the subject of the verb is, for example a group of girls and boys, then, regardless of the ratio of boys to girls, the subsequent verb and/or adjective will always be in the masculine form.

For example, referring to a group of boys and girls:

English: 'They are beautiful'

French: 'Ils sont beaux'

Spanish: 'Son guapos'

Here the adjectives in both French and Spanish are in the masculine form, thus implying masculine supremacy, as the masculine overrides the feminine every time.

This is echoed in the English language too, although to a lesser extent. An example would be when one refers to a general person as male, for example saying that "each student does his own homework" instead of using the gender neutral 'their'. Furthermore we often say things such as 'Fireman,' and 'Mankind.' This implies that it is only the masculine that matters.

The main problem I have with this is the fact that it is so engrained in our society that even from a very young age girls are made to feel secondary through this subtle use of language. 

You may think that I am making something out of nothing, but in fact there was a study done which showed that depending on the gender of certain nouns, take 'bridge' for example, people would describe it in quite different ways. In Spanish the word bridge is masculine, and therefore when Spaniards were asked to describe a bridge, they used adjectives such as: "big," "dangerous," "long," "strong," "sturdy," and "towering." Conversely, the word for bridge in German is feminine, and when asked to describe the same bridge, the Germans used adjectives like: "beautiful," "elegant," "fragile," "peaceful," "pretty," and "slender." This was true despite the fact the tests were done in English, a language without grammatical gender. The stereotypically masculine and feminine descriptions of the same bridge can only lead us to the conclusion that the language must be affecting peoples perception of the bridge. Therefore it does seem that the use of gender in a language is significant. 

Perhaps in order to combat this inherent gender supremacy and the stereotypes it plays on we should think about using gender neutral forms in our own language, for example 'humankind' and 'firefighters.' I acknowledge that the problem is less easily solved abroad, but the adoption of a neuter, gender neutral, form could be beneficial if at all viable. 


Written by Lili

Picture Credit: Ellen

https://edge.org/conversation/how-does-our-language-shape-the-way-we-think