Week 12, Post 2: Man Power

I found the section titled The Masculine Power to Name Experience in Chapter 35 to be very true. As with the standpoint theory, Kramarae notes the difference between the male and female experience in the world. Going further, she points out that "women's talk is subject to male control and censorship" (456). I never noticed that the phrase level playing field was so masculine. I know it's sports related but I never thought about the significance of the phrase. How ironic it is that a phrase related to making things equal between men and women is a "stereotypical masculine linguistic term" (456).

There are also way more derogatory terms for women than there are for men. One example given was the kinds of words that refer to the way that only women talk. These terms, such as catty, bitchy, and gossipy don't apply to male conversation. Also, there are practically ten times more gender-related terms that label women as sexually-loose than there are for men. Obviously, society has been male-dominated and the course language has taken is evident of that. So what do we do with these terms? It would be difficult to get rid of them, as some of them are popular even today. I'm not sure anything can really be done but it is important that muted women are given a voice in society.