A few points of clarification

[Alice Freed]

Hi everyone,

     I would like to clarify a few things that I said in my last
posting in light of some of the postings that it generated.

     I. Vote on whether or not GALA should in any way be declared
        feminist.

     It seems that the disagreement continues to be a matter of
definitions. When I posted the view of feminism (repeated below)
that is being suggested as part of option #3 of our vote [" a
'feminist' philosophical statement for GALA"], I did not
necessarily consider it as any sort of definitive philosophical
statement about feminism (although I still stand by it). But I
should mention that from my perspective (and that of some other
scholars) feminism *does* include, among other things, the study
of masculinity and language whether in a homosocial or
heterosocial context.. (See Sally Johnson's "Theorzing Language
and Masculinity: A Feminist Perspective in _Language and
Masculinity_.) For me, the emphasis in feminist work is on the
newness and non-essentialist nature of the work undertaken and
not the sex, gender, or sexual orientation of the speakers being
studied. I would agree that my perspective is more in keeping
with what is usually understood as "Gender Studies" than "Women's
Studies."

     From my earlier posting:
"feminism" means something related to both theory and practice.
The theoretical: the pursuit and creation of new knowledge resulting
from the investigation of new questions and diverse experiences that have
been neglected by traditional scholarship because this was established
according to male norms. (white, heterosexist male norms.) The practical:
This knowledge should be used to create a world in which issues
involving sex and gender difference are minimized and equal opportunities
and possibilities exist for everyone."

     II. In response to Norma's comments about the nature of GALA.

     If we can keep the discussion of GALA going the way it was
originally conceived -- that sounds great to me. If only 15
people participate in the voting, however, it turns out not to be
a very broad based democracy and that was what I was addressing.

     III.  About the sort of journal we might want, again in
respnse to Norma, I agree that we would not want to exclude
philosophical or postmodern or critical theoretic work. By
"rigorous" I meant something like "careful, serious, demanding,
precise."

     Mary also raised some questions related to a future journal.
I find _Women and Language_ a bit more
oriented to studies of difference than I imagine a journal
sponsored by GALA would be. As for _Language, Gender, and Sexism_
I have  very limited knowledge of the journal (as I think is the
case for many people in North America) and it was my
understanding that the emphasis is often on sexism in language as
the title suggests. Am I mistaken?

     Alice

     ___________________________

     Alice F. Freed
     Linguistics Department
     Montclair State University
     Upper MOntclair, NJ 07043 (USA)
     freeda at alpha.montclair.edu
     (973) 655-7505