Gender roles and language

anotherlgbttumblr:

Gender roles and language can be dealt with in three ways (probably more, but I wanna talk about these three now):

- You can be oblivious to it. You can never question the language people have used to describe you, the roles they have put you in and the way they have taught you to talk about yourself. 

- You can know that gender roles and language have power over you. That not having the words for something can stop you from finding your identity. That the words you have learned erased your identity, clinicalized it and degraded it. That language and gender roles can be cages. 

- You can know that you have power over gender roles and language. That through art, through expression and through your mere existence, you can change gender roles and language. That you have the power to reclaim words, to change the meaning of words and to invent new ones. That once you know the power of language and gender roles, you can use them to start fighting back. That you can provide yourself, the people around you or the whole world with new forms of language. 

Art, above all, is an amazing thing. Throughout history, single individuals have impacted on our understanding of the world through art and have left us new words, new meanings in old words, and new ways of seeing the world. But politics, science, or just existing and speaking about your life also influences language in small and big ways. Language can feel like a cage, but we can change it - it is constantly changing - and when we do, we change the world. 

(via fuckyeahsexeducation)

2.26.12. language,words/wording,gender,Gender Roles,gender studies,feminism,

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