[Ads-l] Berkeley and gender neutral words

[Peter Reitan]

To be clear, I wasn't talking about a particular study that made that 
case or purported to make that case.

I was responding to a characterization of some study said to be evidence 
that some "gendered" words sometimes used generically in 
non-gender-specific situations are actually perceived as "demeaning, 
offensive, sexist or the like," as suggested by a poster.
The brief description of the study did not seem to support the 
conclusion the poster attributed to it.



------ Original Message ------
From: "Laurence Horn" <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
To: ADS-L at listserv.uga.edu
Sent: 7/21/2019 1:40:53 PM
Subject: Re: Berkeley and gender neutral words

>---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>Subject:      Re: Berkeley and gender neutral words
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>FWIW, this is Miller & Swift=E2=80=99s summary of the study I was trying =
>to remember:=20
>
>https://tinyurl.com/y6d6ztqn
>=20
>And a related study with similar results:
>
>https://tinyurl.com/y42dym4b
>
>  The experimental protocols in both cases were different from the one =
>Jon and Peter are discussing, and they don=E2=80=99t relate to what=E2=80=99=
>s demeaning or offensive, but to which images are evoked by given =
>=E2=80=9Cneutral=E2=80=9D words, and by hypothesis to who feels included =
>and who doesn=E2=80=99t.
>
>LH
>
>
>>  On Jul 21, 2019, at 4:14 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> =
>wrote:
>>=20
>>  I was thinking the same thing. It seems like a non sequitur to jump =
>from
>>  the described experiment to the conclusion that that the replacement =
>of
>>  such words would be powerfully (or even marginally) beneficial.
>>=20
>>  BTW. "sacerdos" not only referred to either sex, its grammatical =
>gender
>>  varied accordingly.
>>=20
>>  JL
>>=20
>>  JL
>>=20
>>  On Sun, Jul 21, 2019 at 12:23 PM Peter Reitan <pjreitan at hotmail.com> =
>wrote:
>>=20
>>>  Correct me if I'm wrong, but evidence of being "more likely" to =
>select
>>>  certain kinds of photos in response to different words is not the =
>same
>>>  as evidence of being "demeaning, offensive, sexist or the like."  Or =
>is
>>>  there more to the study than you conveyed in the brief reference to =
>it
>>>  here?
>>>=20
>>>  ------ Original Message ------
>>>  From: "Alice Faber" <afaber at panix.com>
>>>  To: ADS-L at listserv.uga.edu
>>>  Sent: 7/20/2019 5:31:28 PM
>>>  Subject: Re: Berkeley and gender neutral words
>>>=20
>>>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>  -----------------------
>>>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>>  Poster:       Alice Faber <afaber at PANIX.COM>
>>>>  Subject:      Re: Berkeley and gender neutral words
>>>=20
>>>>  =
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------=
>-----
>>>>=20
>>>>  On 7/20/19 4:13 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>>>>  Is there any pre-craze empirical evidence that women in general =
>found
>>>  such
>>>>>  words demeaning, offensive, sexist, or the like?
>>>>=20
>>>>  Actually, there is. I don't remember the citation, but back when I
>>>>  taught intro linguistics and psycholinguistics, there was a study we
>>>>  discussed where the experimental task was to find pictures in =
>magazines
>>>>  to illustrate specific words. When participants were finding =
>pictures of
>>>>  firefighters, mail carriers, flaggers and the like they were more =
>likely
>>>>  to select pictures of women than when they were finding pictures of
>>>>  firemen, mailmen, flagmen, etc. These participants may well have =
>claimed
>>>>  not to think of the latter as inherently gendered terms, but they
>>>>  certainly acted as if they were.
>>>>=20
>>>>  AF
>>>>=20
>>>>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>=20
>>>=20
>>>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>=20
>>=20
>>=20
>>  --=20
>>  "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the =
>truth."
>>=20
>>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org


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