Language and Gender

Synthesis on Language and Gender

Hegemony is a concept that has been use to describe dominance of one group over the other . There are also several processes by which a dominant culture maintains its dominant position they can use the institutions to formalize power , the employment of a bureaucracy to make power seem abstract (and , therefore , not to any one individual the inculcation of the populace in the ideals of the hegemonic group through education , advertising , publication , etc the mobilization of a police force as well as military personnel to subdue

opposition

Antonio Gramsci , offered us a definition of the word hegemony , he meant the permeation throughout society of an entire system of values attitudes , beliefs and morality that has the effect of supporting the status quo in power relations . In this sense , hegemony is defined as an 'organizing principle ' that is diffused by the process of socialization into every area of daily life . To the extent that this prevailing consciousness is internalized by the population it becomes part of what is generally called 'common sense ' so that the philosophy , culture and morality of the ruling elite comes to appear as the natural of things

As a subject matter , it has increasingly beguiled several philosopher and thinkers . In fact , Gramsci coined the word `ideological hegemony by which he meant that the majority of the population accepted what was happening in society as `common sense ' or as `the only way of running society . People may seek for reforms and improvement but the existing beliefs and values systems underpinning society is seen as either neutral or of general applicability in relation to the class structure of society (Parker 139

Taking off from this premise , we can surmise that gender typically provide a powerful basis for constructing opposing cultural categories of masculine versus feminine , but the content of these categories is not permanently set , but rather is constructed in an ongoing fashion through the daily practices of social interaction . Furthermore , the notions of gender daily inform cultural behavior in the understandings we bring to social relationships and in turn are constructed by our practices in these relationships , in short , our habitus is engendered (Foley 286

Gender-relations is a contested cultural category . There are valued styles of speaking associated with men 's activities in the public realm and this is sometimes denied to women . The male dominance is explicit in this claim . However , this male domination in society or linguistic practices for that matter is being challenge nowadays . In Kiesling study , he argued that the authoritative stances involves in masculinity implicates social hierarchy . Language played an important role in creating and recreating gender identities of male (251

In Abu Lughod 's `The Romance of Resistance , the author noticed a significant event , which is of great interest among anthropologists . Abu Lughod is also an eyewitness to the narratives of resistance among the Bedouin women . The women resist marriage , which have been actually arranged for them (44 ) This explicitly implicates the negotiation which undergoes...