Watch Your Language!

Does language lead your thoughts-or do your thoughts lead your language? I’ve been thinking about this as my theories about masculine and feminine energy seem to push a lot of buttons. I can appreciate that no one likes to be categorized, yet these archetypes aren’t new. Most cultures around the world assign a gender to lifeless objects.

Things that are large or dangerous such as a hammer, a pistol, thunder, or war tend to be assigned a masculine gender. Also, strong animals of unknown sex such as a dog, wolf or bear are usually called “he.” Meanwhile, fragile things of beauty that imbue calmness such as rain, flowers, friendship, happiness, sadness, cats, butterflies, and birds are most often seen to be of the female gender. This assignment of gender is often displayed in one’s mother-tongue (note the reference to female when it comes to talking). And research shows that our use of language actually affects, not only how we see the world but, how we live within it.

I found a couple of fascinating tidbits to reinforce this in a study conducted by Lera Boroditsky. First, German and Spanish speakers described objects that had been given different genders in their two languages. For example, a bridge is feminine in German and masculine in Spanish. The German described the bridge as elegant, peaceful, pretty, and slender while the Spaniard said it was big, strong, sturdy, and towering. So the way that they thought about the object was different, based on whether it was considered masculine or feminine.

Second, assignment of gender is also evident in the way that artists personify death. In 85 percent of the cases where death is painted in a human form, it follows the grammatical gender of the word in the artist’s language. For example, most Russian painters depict death as a woman, while German artists are likely to paint death as a man. So, once again, language leads thoughts.

In a newsletter on this topic, I proposed that to address this issue we could do three things: 1) only use titles that are gender-neutral, 2) eliminate stereotypes which have a negative connotation for women, and 3) integrate both masculine and feminine energy words and phrases in our everyday language. If we are truly committed to balancing our energy our language is a good place to start. Am I speaking your language?        

Comments

[JanRossiCO]

They can't have gender neutral titles because certain products are MEANT to target the testosterone crowd (Speed Stick Deodorant for instance) and some products are geared towards women's issues like Mascara. The people who are attracted to that type of marketing/product will naturally gravitate to it and buy it. A gender neutral world sounds boring.

I personally have many male traits (thanks Dad - strong Dad genes) and I tend to lean towards liking gadgets and I hate shoe shopping. What can I say? That's who I am. I roll my eyes when my friend wants to go buy shoes....ok (sigh) but can we stop at the Farmer's market so I can buy my "man-made" (ha) lettuce?

Interesting....

Jan Rossi

[Betty-Ann Heggie]

I agree that some products are "pink" and some are "blue", making it more fun for members of each sex to enjoy them. When I spoke of gender neutral titles I was referring to "Chairman" or "Alderman". We don't want little girls to believe that they can't aspire to the position because it is clearly meant for someone of the opposite sex. Having many male traits means that you have both masculine and feminine energy and that is what I believe each of us should aspire to- we should have a balance of both- that is good Gender Physics. I wonder if it could be as easy as eating "man-made" lettuce! HHmm... could be a topic for another blog! Thanks for sharing your thoughts, BA