Cameron Godfrey

Essay #1

WST 1510

Feb. 25, 2018

Precision of Language: How Gender Is Constructed And How To Avoid It

According to the constructivist theory, gender is an imagined concept created by a series

of experiences, societal pressures, media influence, and other socially created realities that

impact one's conscious and subconscious decisions. That is to say that “femininity” as we define

it culturally is not an intrinsic quality of an individual with female primary and secondary sex

characteristics, but rather a series of qualities that are ​expected​ of said individual, and these

expectations often dictate our reality. It is my personal belief that many of my own behaviors and

choices, including the way I present physically, the way I use language, and assumptions I have a

tendency to make based on the way others present and behave, are a product of my expectations

of myself and others as gendered beings. Although as an intersectional feminist of the

constructivist persuasion, I have made a conscious effort to counter the gender expectations that I

believe are constructed by an essentialist society, I understand that I am guilty of certain

unconscious thoughts and behaviors that perpetuate many unnatural and unfair expectations of

what it means to be a woman.

One concept I have often neglected to consider is the impact of the way I use language on

how women are perceived. The textbook notes the way language uses maleness as a standard.

Examples provided include “mankind, chairman, policeman, postman,” (48). Though I try to

avoid these examples in my writing and speaking, one I have identified in my daily vocabulary is
referring to myself as a “freshman” in college. When I attended Bowling Green State University

for the fall semester, there was a movement to replace the word with “first-year,” but I paid little

attention to it because I didn’t understand the gravity of the issue. I am beginning to realize now

how the nuances of language impact the construction of gender. Audrey Bilger’s “On Language:

You Guys” successfully articulated this notion with respect to the use of the plural noun “guys”

to refer to a group of people, regardless of gender. The author explains that “calling women

‘guys’ makes femaleness invisible. It says that man-- as in a male person-- is still the measure of

all things,” (76). This passage resonated with me, and helped me to examine the way I use

language in other ways. Some examples I identified from my daily life were the common

phrases, “grow a pair,” “be a man,” and referring to someone as “ballsy.” This mindset,

according to Robert Jensen in “Masculine, Feminine, or Human,” creates the idea that “To be a

man is to be a player, someone who does not take shit from people, who can stand down another

guy if challenged, who does not let anyone else get in his face,” (70). Through the essentialist

notion that a woman must be the opposite of everything a man is, this creates the idea that to be a

woman is to be weak or submissive.

A hot-button issue in intersectional feminist conversation is the concept of assuming

someone’s gender based on their physical appearance. This essentialist practice is something

most everyone takes part in, as we are accustomed to the idea that if someone presents in a

traditionally feminine way, and has traditionally feminine visible secondary sex characteristics,

we automatically assign she/her pronouns. For much of history, this has been more or less

foolproof (of course there have always been exceptions), but as America becomes more

progressive and constructivist, we are beginning to see a huge movement away from this strict
gender binary. As we begin to break the ties between sex characteristics, gender identity, gender

presentation, sexual attraction, and romantic attraction (a movement that I believe is in the

correct direction) it becomes more and more dangerous to make these assumptions. This is

definitely progress, but many are resistant to this change. This resistance is best illustrated in

Lois Gould’s “X: A Fabulous Child’s Story,” that tells the story of a family with a child whose

gender is undisclosed to the public. This child, whose gender is defined as X, is exposed to toys,

activities, and peers that are both traditionally male and female, and is not limited to one end of

this broad spectrum. The conflict in the story doesn’t come from the child’s own perception of

themselves, but rather from the parents of their peers that become angry and confused when their

own children begin to make choices that don’t align with the genders assigned to them. The

conclusion of the story is that this X child is ultimately happy and satisfied with their own

identity, and they are never outcasted by their peers. The experiment only manifests itself as a

problem when the adults who have grown up socialized to adhere to a strict gender binary

become uncomfortable with this change. This narrative illustrates a problem with society that is

born when we stubbornly maintain this female-male gender binary. The textbook maintains that

biologically, "it is impossible to firmly classify people as completely female or male" (46).

However, we are still making assumptions based entirely on physical appearance. By doing so,

we are endorsing the idea that women must present and behave in a certain way in order to be

valid. In “Courage from Necessity” Barb Greve rejects these standards by keeping his given

name as he transitions to present in a traditionally masculine way. Barb details his experience as

a trans man and the reactions he receives to coming out. He explains that “human instinct is to

try to group like people together, but like so much of life, two people who appear to be alike on
the outside may be entirely different” (112). Barb’s story is an example of how sex, gender

identity, and gender presentation do not always align. His choice to keep his traditionally-female

name though he is changing the way he presents and identifies does not make him any less valid

as a man. He explains that society made him feel “forced to choose between a man and a

woman,” (113) and that to choose to be entirely one or the other would be to deny a large part of

what makes him who he is. By assuming someone’s gender based on antiquated notions of how

an individual should be, we force people who do not fit this mold to feel uncomfortable in their

own skin.

Unlearning the essentialist mindset that has been ingrained in me by society since birth is

an extremely difficult process that I must be willing to actively pursue. I am currently on track to

get my degree in Adolescent to Young Adult Language Arts education to be a high school

English teacher. I am beginning to learn through my studies, my observation of the world, and

my own introspection, that it will be my responsibility to pay much attention to the way I use

language inside and out of the classroom. In an effort to resist the negative cultural construction

of women, I must be committed to the precision of language, and the avoidance of such limiting

terms as “you guys,” “be a man,” “grow a pair,” and other gendered patterns of language. While,

as Bilger acknowledges, defending such small nuances of language is often perceived as “being

‘too sensitive’ or ‘too PC’” and “it’s certainly easier just to go along with things, to avoid

making people uncomfortable,” (77) being submissive and just letting things happen to avoid

trouble is doing ​exactly what society expects us to do​. As tedious and often uncomfortable as it is

to constantly, actively reject patterns that are “so pervasive that we usually don’t notice them”
(48), it is necessary because “the more we raise our voices, the less likely it is that women and

girls will be erased from speech,” (77).

One more specific choice I can make in my use of language is the way I use pronouns. As

a writer, I have worked to disrupt the pattern of using “his or her” by replacing it with “her or

his,” but this still maintains a binary that I want to work to eradicate. In this essay, I have chosen

to use “their” as a singular pronoun when referring to Child X. As an English teacher, I want to

work to normalize this word usage. I have several friends who elect to use this nomenclature and

it is effective. I have been confronted by individuals who reject this word usage because it is

disruptive to the grammatical rules they are used to, however, even as someone with an affinity

for proper grammar, I believe that we must be more concerned with making choices that make

others feel comfortable and safe than we are with policing grammatical correctness. While I have

avoided using “they” pronouns in academic writing in the past, now more than ever I believe it is

a step that needs to be taken. Another effective tool for countering the construction of gender is

by asking for someone’s pronouns upon meeting them, even if I think that I can guess. Asking

someone only if their gender is ambiguous to me is uncomfortable for all parties involved, but if

we can normalize this behavior, we can create a much safer environment for all, and open a

comfortable dialogue about gender. I especially want to ask my students to specify their

pronouns at the beginning of the school year so I do not make anyone feel targeted or unsafe.

Though I might stumble, for no one is perfect, I must be careful and considerate in how I interact

with others, and I must hold others to this same standard. Especially as a teacher, whose job is

molding the minds of others through public speaking and forming interpersonal relationships, it

is my responsibility to pay close attention to the way I use language. I must avoid associating
beauty with thinness (Chernik, 129), femininity with daintiness and other traditionally-female

qualities, purity with virginity (Valenti, 141) and whiteness (Souza, 148), disability with

asexuality (Hugs, 152), lesbianism with masculinity (Koedt, 153), bisexuality with promiscuity

(Ochs, 161), and other stereotypes that create a pandemic of misconceptions about what it means

and doesn’t mean to be a woman. All of these assumptions that are created through the use of

language can be avoided if we actively pay attention to the words we use.

It is my philosophy that if I am not willing to make this active effort, I am not going into

the right business. In order to resist the cultural construction of women, I must be willing to

experience the discomfort of heightening my consciousness of my language in order to create a

sense of comfort for those around me.

 Works Cited

Kelly, Suzanne, et al. ​Women: Images and Realities: A Multicultural Anthology​. 5th ed.,

McGraw-Hill, 2012.