Feminism, the vote.

[Scott Kiesling]

I've been lurking too. I do work on language and masculinity (from what I
call a feminist perspective). I also lurk around on various 'men's
studies' lists. If you ever need argumentative discourse, these lists are
the place, because people who do men's studies run the gamut from feminist
men to *very* anti-feminist men. I bring this up because from what I see
in these discourses, men who are anti-feminist will take issue with even
the most 'bland' statements, and especially with statements that assume
male dominance (as in Sally's excellent statement below). In fact, I would
predict that they would be angry that an orgnaisation like GALA, which is
probably made up mostly of people who call themsleves feminists, would try
to hide their feminist ideological orientation. The upshot of my story is
that people will see the organisation as feminist, as they define it,
whatever we say. I think most of us share a feminist orientation, so we
might as well be honest about it, and state how (most of us) understand
that term. If we don't share a feminist orientation, then we shouldn't say
we do.

BTW, I usually say I'm a feminist, with the understanding that feminism is
about removing inequalities of gender in society and questioning
unstated cultural assumptions about gender. In work on language and
gender, this means examining critically how power differences are created
and supported through language, including (in my case) language used
between men. (And I could go on but I'll spare everyone).

So I guess that's a vote for putting the feminism in explicitly.

Best,
Scott

On Thu, 10 Jun 1999, Sally McConnell-Ginet wrote:

> I've been lurking and trying to weigh the options presented for a vote.
> I'm not sure that I really like any of the options as laid out.  Although I
> strongly endorse a feminist orientation of the general sort detailed by
> Alice Freed (but with some reservations of the sort Miriam Meyerhoff
> expressed about how the "practical" part gets realized), I do think it is
> important to be inlusive and also important not to bog ourselves down in
> negotiating definitions of "feminism."  Several people have said they want
> some mention of feminist contributions to the study of gender and language,
> while also not wanting to exclude queer theorists or folks studying
> masculinities or others who might not self-identify as feminists.  Maybe
> this is what (2) aims at but I'm not completely sure.
>
> How about something like:
>
> GALA is an organization that seeks to promote research on the interaction
> of gender and language.  This field of scholarly inquiry began developing
> in response to feminist concerns about the ways in which sex, power, and
> language connect to one another; research has often had not only a
> theoretical but a practical aim, seeking to understand the linguistic
> underpinnings of male dominance in order to dismantle male privilege.
> Queer theorists have brought the linguistic dimensions of sexualities and
> hetersexism into the picture.  Critical studies of language and racial
> identities, ethnicities, and masculinities have also expanded the field far
> beyond what was included under the early "women and language" rubric.  GALA
> is being started to help foster more regular productive exchanges among
> scholars of language and gender with many different research emphases and
> orientations and from diverse disciplinary backgrounds.
>
> I'm voting for (2), construing it along the above lines.
>
>
> Sally McConnell-Ginet
> Professor of Linguistics
> Chair, Department of Linguistics
> Morrill Hall, Cornell
> Ithaca, NY 14853
> 607-255-6469
> (Linguistics office: 255-1105, 255-3384)
> FAX: 607-255-2044
>


  Scott Fabius Kiesling

  kiesling at mail.usyd.edu.au
  http://www-personal.usyd.edu.au/~kiesling/skpage.html

  Department of Linguistics		
  University of Sydney			
  Sydney, NSW 2006 Australia		
  +61 2 9351 7518	
  Fax: +61 2 9351 7572			

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