Something to Consider

 A SHORT LIST:

policeman

fireman

businessman

mankind

man invented the wheel

man evolved

man-made

"sing us a song, you're the piano-man,"

"Blessed is he, our Lord our God..."

Nitpicking? Searching for the patriarchy where it doesn’t exist? Maybe. But this short list is an example of how language is pervasive and has a subtle, but very real effect on our perceptions of social norms. Originally the word for man was gender neutral, but once it had evolved to refer specifically to males, it had already been cemented into language. There is nothing sexist in the history of these words, and definitely nothing overtly malicious about their current usage, but that doesn’t mean their impact ceases to exist. When “gender neutral” is masculine, it does send a message to young girls that they cannot enter certain occupations, it does send a message to women that we were never important in history, and it does enforce masculinity as the “natural order of things”.

Hannah