Abstract

Language is the reflection of culture. For a long time, there has existed sexism in the English language and it is due to both cultural and historical factors. Anti-female bias in the English language can be traced in vocabulary as well as in its social uses, and such a language phenomenon is caused by a combination of religious, educational, social, and political factors. To eliminate anti-female bias in English, lexical measures themselves are not enough. A more effective and resultful measure is to get rid of the anti-female bias conception of the society and further improve women’s social status. Only in this way can the real equality of men and women be achieved one day.

Key words: anti-female bias, culture, feminism, anti-female vocabulary

摘要

语言是文化的一种表现。长期以来，英语中存在着大量性别歧视现象，其背后有着深厚的历史文化根源。英语中的性别歧视既表现在词语本身，也表现在词语的社会使用之中。这种语言现象是宗教、教育、社会及政治几个方面共同作用的结果。而要消除语言中性别歧视现象，仅通过语言手段是不够的。更主要的是根除社会上存在的性别歧视观念，进一步提高妇女的社会地位。只有这样，才可能最终实现真正意义上的男女平等。

关键词：女性偏见；文化；女权主义；性别歧视词汇

1. Introduction
Language, as a carrier and reflection of culture, indicates people’s thoughts, values and customs of a society in a certain age. With the passing down of a language, the cultural heritage and people’s values of a nation have permeated the use and expressions in the language itself, so it is with English.
Sexist language is the language that expresses bias in favor of one sex and thus treats the other sex in a discriminatory manner. Anti-female bias or sexism in the English language has remained a hot issue since a long time ago. In the past, women are supposed to stay at home, remaining powerless and generally subordinate to man, whereas men are considered as the center both in the family and society. Hence, for a long time women have been looked on as “the weaker sex” in society.
However, with the awakening of women’s awareness of their status and with the wide spread of feminist movement, more and more linguists have paid attention to sexism in language. Many perspectives on sexism language have arisen and they are traditionally divided into two groups: one group lays their emphasis on linguistic asymmetries in the English language and claim that English is sexist. The other group mainly focuses on the speech differences between men and women. There have been many books and articles on sexism in English language ( Lakeoff, 1975; Spender, 1980; Cameron, 1992; Pauwels, 1998, to name just a few). In Lakeoff’s book Language and Women’s Place, she points out that “we will find, I think, that women experience linguistic discrimination in two ways: in the way they are taught to use language and in the general way language use treats them.”