gender and language

[Beeching, Kate]

Dear Tom,
Yes, please send me an offprint!
What about Elizabeth Gordon's ideas about promiscuity ?
(Girls may be accused not just of lack of femininity but of
being "up for it", "loose" etc. even in 2001).(I seem to
have lost the reference to Gordon's paper - can anyone
remind me? - I think the article appeared in Language in
Society). Girls can be termed "sluts" or "slappers"
(particularly if they use regional or non-standard
variants) - boys are not generally thus derogatively
labelled.
My 19 year-old daughter spent her adolescent years calling
girls in her comprehensive school in Bath "slappers"
(ironically) pronounced with a decidedly West Country
accent. (I was of course horrified that any daughter of
mine could be so un P.C.even though joking). Many of these
girls are now in charge of a toddler and new babe-in-arms...

I'm not sure exactly what conclusion one might draw from
this except that double standards seem to exist concerning
girls' and boys' sexuality (ultimately girls are left
holding the baby?) and this might affect language - though
why a regional accent should equal "slut" is beyond me.

Does this "slut" label also exist in the U.S.? I will make
enquiries about the situation in France.
Kate Beeching.
University of the West of England
Faculty of Languages and European Studies
Frenchay Campus
Coldharbour Lane
Bristol BS16 1QY

On Wed, 24 Oct 2001 16:40:22 +0100 Tom Delph-Janiurek
<t.delph-janiurek at LAMP.AC.UK> wrote:

> Deborah Cameron (1995, 'Verbal Hygiene) claims that speech training and
> elocution in Britain, designed to moderate or eliminate 'local' accents,
> has mainly been aimed at women because non-standard Enlgish does not accord
> with the prescriptions of dominant forms of 'femininity' and 'feminine'
> voices. Apparently, to be 'correct' and 'ladylike', 'feminine' voices
> should bear markers of higher social status - and perhaps a reason for what
> seems to be a longstanding prescription might be that it would help women
> to marry 'up' the social scale.
>
> There may be connections to societal discourses concerning decorum,
> gentitlity, bodily hygiene and perhaps ultimately sexual purity that shape
> prescriptions for women's voices. This might explain why Cameron writes of
> commentators in the past seeming to be more troubled by the 'coare accents
> of flower girls... than those of barrow boys (p. 170).
>
> In contrast, 'local' accent and dialectal forms seem to be able to
> contribute to some 'masculine voices'.
>
> I've written a bit more about this in (1999) 'Sounding Gender(ed): vocal
> performances in English University teaching spaces' in the journal 'Gender,
> Place and Culture' Vol 6(2) pp. 137-153.
>
> I have a small number of off-prints of this left, if anyone would like one
> sent.
>
> Best,
>
> Tom.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ***************************************************************************
> Tom Delph-Janiurek
>
> Department of Geography,                      Adran y Daearyddiaeth,
> University of Wales, Lampeter,                Prifysgol Cymru,
> Lampeter, Ceredigion,                 Llanbedr Pont Steffan, Ceredigion,
> UK.                                   Cymru, UK.
> SA48 7ED                              SA48 7ED
>
>               Tel/Ffфn:       +44  (0)1570  424738 (Direct)
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>
>       Fax/Ffacs: +44  (0)1570  424714
>
>  http://www.lamp.ac.uk/geog/
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> **************************************************************************

----------------------------------------
Beeching, Kate
Email: Kate.Beeching at uwe.ac.uk
"University of the West of England"


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