Gender
Man accidentally signs emails with female coworker's name
This is a collection of man's tweets about his experience accidentally signing emails with his female colleague's name, followed by a deliberate week of swapping names with her to observe their relative productivity at serving their clients. [Published on 03-10-2017]
Masculinity and Femininity in Disney's Mulan
Play videoThe song “I’ll Make A Man Out of You” from the 1998 classic Mulan shows gender stereotypes and battling them. Mulan is a Disney classic that confronts battling feminine stereotypes head on and throughout the movie the protagonist Mulan shows that she can do anything a man can do. In this song specifically, the gender stereotypes of being a man in the war and what a man should be able to do and be is explained to a very catchy rhythm. Along with this throughout the song, Mulan shows how she is strong and she can fight just the same as them, but because of the laws, she must do this all while dressed as a man to blend in.
Jackie Aina's Review of Inclusive Fenty Beauty
Play videoJackie Aina is a popular black makeup artist and YouTuber who frankly discusses issues of race. She also frequently employs some features of African American English along with Standard English, unlike some other popular black beauty YouTubers who use more Standard English in their videos.
2 Dope Queens #4 "How to Channel Your Inner White Lady"
Comedy podcast including race and gender. [Published on 04-18-2016]
Vocal fry
Play videoA CDC News broadcaster explores the use of vocal fry (a.k.a. creaky voice) among women and considers the debate surrounding this speech quality's stigmatization. (Also note some of the comments below the video that highlight this topic of conversation as somewhat polarizing/ controversial.)
Women Aren't Ruining Food
This article by Jaya Saxena talks about the gender encoded words used to describe foods associated with either men or women, and how that affects perception of the foods in society. [Published on 10-30-2017]
Empowering Identity with Language
Play videoA YouTube blogger named Finn talks about how language can power and disempower identities. Specifically he talks about how trans individuals need to use confident language when talking about their identity. He points out the faults of expressions and phrases commonly used by the Transgender community that feed into the disempowered dialogue used by non-trans individuals. The way that we talk about ourselves not only influences the way we feel about ourselves but also how we allow others to talk about us.
Zoella's Controversial Tweets from 2010
Gender stereotypes and sexuality appear to cross over in a few aspects, including negative connotations. This quote seems to suggest that spitting is associated with "macho" heterosexual men according to gender stereotypes; whereas gay men are not "macho" enough to be taken seriously when exhibiting the same actions.
#I'mNoAngel
Lane Bryant challenges gender stereotypes about what it means to be sexy using #I'mNoAngel, indexing and contrasting with the stereotypical representation of sexy: the Victoria's Secret Angel.
Things Not to Say to Women at Work
Play videoThis video challenges language used in ways that specifically applies to women. This video produced by the BBC discusses common phrases, words and topics that specifically target and apply to women in the workplace that portray sexist ideologies. The women in the video confront these, explain why they are inappropriate, and in some cases offer alternate ways to frame these discussions.
Everybody uses singular they, whether they realize it or not
Linguist Geoff Nunberg weighs on in singular they after it was voted 2016 word of the year. [Published on 12-30-2016]
Welcome to Hell SNL Skit
The SNL skit in this article goes into the topic of how dangerous the world is for women and how men have not been aware of it until now in line with the sexual harassment cases. The title of the song is called "Welcome to Hell." It tries to break language/gender ideologies by describing the how females see the world as "Hell", but in the light cheerful way that women are "supposed" to speak due to current social linguistic ideology now. [Published on 12-03-2017]
FTM Transgender: 3.5 Years on T voice comparison
Play videoA trans man gives examples of his voice across 3 and a half years of testosterone treatment
Incredible! Woman Tacks ‘If That Makes Sense’ Onto Phrases That Definitely Make Sense
This is a satirical article that references women's tendency to use certain features commonly cited in Lakoff's "Women's Language".
Lake Bell Calls Girls Out On "Sexy Baby Vocal Virus"
Play videoThis video clip shows Lake Bell on Conan O’Brien’s talk show. While discussing her upcoming movie, Bell goes into discussion about her annoyance with what she calls “sexy baby vocal virus” and vocal fry. Lake demonstrates what she means by each of these, as well as explains what they are. Both pitch and vocal fry are the main features of these vocal habits. Bell also makes a gender specific claim, that it is women who fall into this habit of speech. Also, during the clip, while talking about her new movie about voice overs, both Bell and O’Brien style-shift between voices and different ways of speaking, representing performativity.
Vin Diesel Vocal Fry
Play videoVocal fry is popular with female celebrities. It's assumption toward young women that this linguistic form of speaking is incorrect; this raspy, low tone represents weakness. But why is it more acceptable for a male to use a form of vocal fry? Vin Diesel is a prime example. His character is strong, smart and courageous.
"Pink or Blue" Video
A video essay set to a poem on gender. It was commissioned to open the Saatchi showcase in Cannes the film uses 3D technology to allow the viewer to switch between two different versions of the film depending which set of glasses they view it through. Much of the video and poem deals with how language and performance affect one's social interactions. [Published on 07-01-2017]
Asterisk*
Play audioAsterisk* is a spoken word poem written and performed by Oliver Renee Schminkey. This piece first appeared as the closing act of The Naked I: Insides Out produced by 20% Theater Company in Minneapolis, MN. The artist, who identifies as gender queer, eloquently and powerfully describes what it is like to live in a world that neither affirms nor denies their gender identity. It exemplifies how prescriptive language that is set in ideology can be limiting and discriminatory.
Vocal Fry still an issue
In this video the Kardashians use vocal fry by using words such as "like" and a higher pitched tone like the "valley girl" voice. In society media sometimes stereotypes girls as being materialistic, self absorbed, sassy, etc. The Kardashians are very popular with society and when they talk like this on television I think it gives society a sort of realization that women really do talk and act like that. This is not the case however, but I think we all know that. The Kardashians are very influential to young women in America and could potentially have vocal fry being used more frequently in the U.S. It also seems that the Kardashians have more layed back tones when at home but when in public it seems their style of speaking and tone of voice changes slightly. [Published on 03-12-2017]
Last F**able Day
Play videoThis is a link from Amy Schumer's Comedy Central show called "Inside Amy Schumer" including the guest appearances of well known actresses Tina Fey, Patricia Arquette and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. In this Comedy Sketch they are holding a party to celebrate Julia's so called "Last Fuckable Day." When Amy asks what a Last Fuckable Day is the women proceed to tell her since they are all women age 45 and above that they have reached a point where they are no longer portrayed in the media as "fuckable" and this was worth celebrating because they no longer had to worry about acting sexy, looking sexy or preforming their feminine gender stereotypes. You will see examples when you watch the clip of how they are straying from their roles as women in today's society and of coarse with this being a comedy sketch everything is exaggerated and dramatized. This clip relates to what we have talked about in class and read in our "Living Language" book discussing preforming a certain role through language use. From the clip the use of language relating to their gender roles as older women is mentioned when they discuss the titles of the movies they will be cast in from now on as older women and what type of characters in movies they will be limited to because of their age and gender.
Faith Salie Vocal fry
Play videoFaith Salie in this video reflects on her experiences as a Rhodes scholar and comedian. Salie talks about societal perceptions of a dichotomy between intelligence and comedic ability. The misconception of vocal fry being an indication of lower intelligence falls apart amidst her clear academic success.
What if Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton Had Swapped Genders?
This article is about a play that recreated the debates between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, but with a woman playing Trump, and a man playing Clinton. The actors trained to accurately replicate each candidates speech and gesture, and the project is meant to highlight the ways that similar stylistic gestures are deemed acceptable or not when used by men and women. [Published on 02-28-2017]
Alice Walker: Fear of Being Feminine
Play videoAlice Walker is an American novelist, poet, and civil and women’s rights activist. She is best known for her critically acclaimed, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Color Purple. In this video, she talks about the negative repercussions of referring to women as ‘guys’. The type of situation she is referencing are when someone, say a server at a restaurant, walks up to a group of women and addresses them by saying “Hi guys, how are you doing today?” Men and women both do this in America and it only perpetuates the fear of being feminine, or a female in general. With so many women still fighting for equal rights, it is crucial to be proud of being a woman and for women to not label themselves or other women as ‘guys’. This way of speaking stems from the fact that the English language is a “masculine default” language. This means that masculinity, along with masculine terms, are the default in English and other feminine terms have been unnecessarily created in order to differentiate between a male and female performing the same role. A good example of this sociolinguistic model is actor vs. actress and waiter vs. waitress. The original words are changed when talking about a woman when really, the word itself is just supposed to describe the job someone is doing. Although feminine words are added, many people still use the masculine terms by default, creating an alienation and feeling of unimportance or lack of superiority for women. Unfortunately, the aforementioned linguistic features, along with calling a group of women “guys”, are innate in most people’s vocabulary and using them can be a very difficult habit to break. Walker suggests women coming together to change the way that they label themselves and other women in order to first separate women from men and then empower those women. Although it may seem like a small step on the way to equality, it is an extremely vital one.
"10 Reasons Lifting is a Religion".
Play videoDom Mazzetti is an iconic Youtuber for the lifting community in general. Some categories of lifters who watch these videos for enjoyment are: Powerlifters, Bodybuilders, Weightlifters, Powerbuilders, and more. Dom has created a series of satire Youtube videos for the lifting community that he calls "Broscience". These videos show heavy use of stereotypical "male gym speak" and every video shows a new satirical example of how to be the most "alpha", or the most "manly man", in your gym. These videos show language ideology in the weight room and free weight area in a gym and how to become a normality within this society by the words that you use when with fellow weight lifting members. Dom plays along gender and sex language ideology by performatively using (thus showing) differences in language use between the stereotypical “muscle head” male compared to the normality of speech in society.
Gendered Language in "Beauty and the Beast"
The character LeFou in "Beauty and the Beast" recently caused some discussion about sexuality especially in a children's movie. LeFou is Gaston's sidekick and is portrayed as gay in the movie. Although there are no major changes in the character from the original movie, people are unhappy with Disney for having a gay character in the movie. Children watching the movie won't even notice the comments, language, or actions that are made or think twice about seeing two men dancing together. The image of the Beast and Gaston as manly and tough using so called man speech is seen as appropriate but LeFou dancing with another man or saying which team he prefers is seen as not okay for a man and has roots in socialization. Disney and other companies are trying to erase these and other stereotypes about gender and sexuality. But there will always be those who are upset and protest something that goes against the "standard norm" as they see it. [Published on 03-20-2017]
Gender Stereotype
Our society is so caught up with our gender stereotypes that even before we start to speak we have the idea of what it is meant to be a boy or a girl. This meme shows the usage of our society putting the color blue in relation to being a boy. This meme is using informal usage of words because it is putting a joke on our gender stereotype when it comes to wearing blue for a boy and pink for a girl.
Boys' keypads Versus Girls' keypads
This image of “boys’ keypads versus girls’ keypads” shows ideologies about gender and texting. Apparently on a woman’s keypad, there are only three not-so-much-informative words: hm, ok, and oh, while boys seem to text normally, at least in words or sentences. It also shows a phonological feature of women’s texting habits like “hmmmmm, okkkkkk, ohhhhhh” which seems unnecessary when conveying information. In the place of the punctuation button, women apparently use two emojis: smile and wink. This may indicate two things: women’s talk is more cooperative, emotional and encouraging; or women’s talk is mostly not genuine, since whatever others text, women only reply with a happy emoji. Compared to the ideologies that women talk more than men, this keyboard image seems to show women scarcely text anything more than three non-informative words and emojis. However, they both portray a negative image of women’s talk: not too much content. The anecdote also portrays a binary distinction between girls’ talk and boys’ talk, and ignores the varieties of how women/men actually talk in real life.
Hillary and Her Iconic Pantsuits.
Play videoOne thing that really stood out when Hillary Clinton was running for president was iconic attire. Orthodoxically, woman who are in or are running for higher professions, such as the Presidency or any other higher office, would be expected to wear clothing such as a dress, a skirt, or a pair of slacks. The pantsuits worn by Clinton, however, during much of the campaign, is heterodoxical to much of what is normally worn by women in these positions. Conventionally, there has been a very negative sentiment towards this style of clothing as it has been received as inappropriately masculine, and there have even been attempts to ban it in certain places. Therefore, her use of this masculine attire during her campaign can be seen as an appeal of increasing power among women.
Who’s Better at Baby Talk, Mom or Dad?
Based upon research, “Mothers responded 88% to 94% of the time to the babies vocalizations, while dads responded only 27% to 33% of the time” (Park, 2014). Therefore, babies respond more to their mothers than their fathers. Additionally, a mother responds more to a daughter and less to a son. Whereas, a father responds more to a son than a daughter. Verbal interaction impacts language performance and academic success. [Published on 11-03-2014]
(Almost) Every time they say "BOY" on Monster Factory (Eps. 1-23)
Play videoThis is exactly what it says in the title--a clip show of every time the hosts of Polygon's video series Monster Factory say the word "boy". What is significant about the use of "boy" in this context is that it is non-standard. Most speakers of American English do not refer to grown men as boys in the same way that these same speakers refer to grown women as girls. Moreover, the hosts are both brothers, lending to their similar styles of speaking as well as senses of humor. I also included "internet language" and "slang" as tags due to the growing use of "boy" to describe grown men across the internet as the show gains popularity within gaming circles.
Talk “Like a Man”: The Linguistic Styles of Hillary Clinton, 1992-2013
This article examines the changes in Hillary Clinton's linguistic style from the years of 1992-2013. Many people have claimed that she talks "like a man," and this article examines that theory. In the article Jennifer J. Jones proves how Hillary went to more of a masculine linguistic approach to a more feministic approach in 2007. There are many reasons for these changes that are reflected in this article. [Published on 08-17-2016]
Watch the second presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton
Play videoCertain ideologies have been established without actually speaking, such as handshaking. In the recent debate it was apparent as the candidates met on the debate stage there was no such exchange. Throughout the debate Mr. Trump displayed numerous was to establish power, both through gestures and verbal exchange. Mr. Trump stood throughout and when Senator Clinton was speaking he often stood behind her. This could be interpreted as a stand of power. Mr. Trump interrupted and made comments while Senator Clinton was talking that could have been an attempt to establish power. Mr. Trump’s continued reference to “locker room talk” could appear to be gender based.
Japanese Gendered Language: How to Talk Like a Girl or Boy
This article discusses gendered language in Japanese, which includes the origin of "feminine language" (which started off as a form of "vulgar" language that schoolgirls were using) and how gendered language can be used as a form of self-identity or as a way to rebel against the strict standards of Japanese language. In the language ideology of Japanese, there have historically been opinions on who can use what type of language and how, but this article demonstrates that these ideologies are changing today. [Published on 02-05-2014]
Gender Differences in Communication
Play videoAn animated video explained such questions: why men and women communicate differently; how the gender difference affects the communication style, and how gender-based forms of speech lead to miscommunication.
Issues of Hispandering
Play videoComedienne Cristela Alonzo discusses Hispandering in her own experience growing up in South Texas, often referring to political campaigns and gender issues.
Men more likely to gossip than women - survey Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-83255/Men-likely-gossip-women--survey.html#ixzz44FDmpzhr Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
Article coincides with the observations in Cameron, Deborah (1997), men's gossip surveyed as greater than women, with further specification concerning subject matter as non-objective and largely emotional in nature. The assigned reading felt pretty straw-man-esque in presentation, so further correlation is not in the least bit surprising. [Published on 03-01-2016]
Key & Peele: Meegan, Come Back
Play videoWe all know the comedians Key and Peele, but what most people don't know is that Peele has a popular "Meegan" skit, where he portrays himself as a woman. He has also voiced several female characters, one of them on the cartoon show "Bob's Burgers." This video is an example of not only how a stereotypical woman would act, but also how she might sound.
Gender Has/Has Not Been Hijacked by White MiddleClass
Play videoPortion of a very interesting debate at the Oxford Union regarding whether feminism has been hijacked by "white middle class" women. Engages so many topics,including race, poverty, feminism/gender politics.
Potty-Mouthed Princesses Drop F-Bombs for Feminism by FCKH8.com
Play videoThis video uses young girl cussing to show that there are more problems in society than little girls cussing. The fact that they are talking the way they are is shocking, which is done to make people actually listen to the bigger point.
Why the f*** shouldn't women swear?
This article talks about sexism in the fact that there is an idea that women should not curse. For example, it mentions that people tell female rapper, Nicki Minaj that she should not cuss, but the same is not said to male rappers, like Eminem or Lil Wayne [Published on 11-04-2014]
Sapir-Worf
This video displays an example of the Sapir-Worf hypothesis by giving the example of a male nurse versus a female nurse. The video is only a sample.
CNN Election Center
Play videoIn this video there are many different types of sociolinguistic artifacts, and in any kind of SNL skit they have to make it more dramatic to bring out the commentary. Yet, within this clip you see many types of tags used within the first few minutes. For example, Donald Trump is the first person to be impersonated, but within the short clip that he is in he shows tags of "Race/Ethnicity, Sexism, Gender, Politics and Policy". And for Hillary Clinton she is showing many of the same character traits as well. Within all of these impersonators they are all trying to benefit themselves in some way that looks appealing to the audience.
Ernestine Johnson Performs 'The Average Black Girl' on Arsenio Hall Show
Play videoErnestine Johnson's performance of "The Average Black Girl" shows the stereotype of talking white vs talking black. Here is a good example of the relationship between race and language.
Should dictionaries do more to confront sexism?
A New Yorker article about the recent criticism of the Oxford English Dictionary for sexist examples entires for words like "rabid" and "bossy," touching on issues of prescriptivism and descriptivism. [Published on 02-24-2016]
who talks more men or women
Play videoEllen takes a poke at women talking more than men 20K vs 7K whereas a recent study shows it is about even at 16K a piece but a good piece showing the first points of men not talking as much as women.
Judith Butler on Performativity
Philosopher and feminist theorist Judith Butler describes performativity as “that reiterative power of discourse to produce the phenomena that it regulates and constrains.” She has largely used this concept in her analysis of gender development. Working in the fields of feminist, queer, and literary studies.
what language barrier
A brief excerpt from Deborah Cameron's book, The Myth of Mars and Venus.
"Pick-Up Artist"
Play videoThis artifact is showing how different people communicate on a daily basis, and how each person has a different way of showing how the communicate. With this skit, most of it exaggerated for comical effect. But this is showing the diversity of people and there language through a simple conversation in group settings. In this skit there is gender rolls being played of femininity and masculinity, while showing the differences within the women's language. And how this "Art of the Pick-Up" class is teaching women how to properly express themselves.
My Sexuality
Play videoThis video entails a character on a TV show, who insists that a women's "sexuality" can get them in or out of any situation. Some may feel that this is demoralizing for women in todays society, because women have worked so hard over the past century to ear the same rights as men. And this is showing that all women have to do is flaunt there sexuality and everything will come to them on a silver platter. Which in fact is not true for all women.
Freshwoman
This article has an interesting perspective on Language and sexism. How our language is still objectifying woman. It's speaks to the power of the words we use. [Published on 03-20-2012]
Latinx: The ungendering of the Spanish language
A NPR story on the current practice of using a gender-neutral term for Spanish nouns like Latino/a, amigo/am, etc. Some commons approaches are Latin@ and Latinx. [Published on 01-29-2016]
If you don't have anything nice to say, SAY IT IN ALL CAPS
An episode of This American Life on internet trolls, which includes a segment on the criticisms of female TAL contributors who use creaky voice, with an interview with Penny Eckert. [Published on 01-23-2016]
Sorry, grammar nerds: The singular "they" has been declared Word of the Year
Coverage of the American Dialect Society's Word of the Year 2016 vote, in which singular 'they' used to refer to a known reference was voted word of the year.
The linguists studied female Disney characters - and what they found was startling
An overview of the recent research by Carmen Fought about gender differentiation in Disney films. [Published on 01-26-2016]
Do Women REALLY Talk More Than Men?
Play videoThis video is a great example of ideology and how it can be generally accepted; even with evidence to the contrary.
Washington Post accepts singular they
The Washington Post's style guide now accepts singular they. [Published on 12-10-2015]
Muxes
An interesting article about "Muxes, Mexico's third gender".
Saturday Morning Cartoons
Autostraddle is self-described as "an intelligent, hilarious & provocative voice and a progressively feminist online community for a new generation of kickass lesbian, bisexual & otherwise inclined ladies (and their friends)".
There's a weekly column called "Saturday Morning Cartoons" following a few different artists, which reminded me of our discussion about Queen's "I Don't Speak Spritch: Locating Lesbian Language" due to the use of comics.
Some of the analyses Queen made are still visible in these cartoons although the distribution method and potentially audience differ from the ones she analyzed in the 90s.
I got corrected on my color names
I was having a discussion with my friend Daphne when another friend of mine, August, walked up. The following discussion happened:
Daphne: I like the color of your shirt!
Me: Yeah, it's a nice minty color
August: Actually, it's sea foam...
Me: THIS SUDDENLY BECAME VERY RELEVANT TO MY EDUCATION
To be clear, August is a heterosexual cis-man. Maybe it's his inner academic that encouraged his exotic color usage.
"Dads should cut out the baby talk to improve their child's language skills, study says"
This is an interesting look at use of child directed speech that found significantly lower pitch and pitch variation when fathers from "traditional two-parent families" spoke to their preschoolers than when mothers did. [Published on 05-20-2015]
99% Invisible Autoreply
The main reason I'm sharing this article is the auto-reply from the podcast 99% Invisible, near the top: it's set up for when people send in complaints about women's voices. I especially love that it mentions that they never get complaints about men's voices on the show. Also that they'll "consider the complaints within, well, never". So good.
Hank Green on Genderbready Stuff
Play videoIn this video, Hank talks about a lot of stuff covered in the Genderbread Person posts. This is definitely not a perfect model either, but I think it's interesting to get another version (though he is also a cishet white male...).
For example, though he does have the continuum going from "man" to "woman", which I do think is problematic, I think it's interesting that he added the "intensity" dimension.
Americans aren't the only ones convinced women speak differently
Building on the momentum of the recent surge in discussions over young women's voices in American English, this article points out that, cross-culturally, women's voices are seen as different. [Published on 07-24-2015]
A response to Naomi Wolf
Deborah Cameron's excellent response to Naomi Wolf. [Published on 07-26-2015]
Young women, give up the vocal fry and reclaim your strong female voice
Author and feminist Naomi Wolf pens an article for the Guardian urging young women to stop using marked features like vocal fry and uptalk. [Published on 07-24-2015]
From upspeak to vocal fry: Are we "policing" young women's voices?
An episode of Fresh Air with sociolinguist Penny Eckert, in part a response to a recent episode of Fresh Air with a speech pathologist who criticized features used by young people in American English. [Published on 07-23-2015]
Sam Adams TV Commercial
A commercial for the beer brand Sam Adams, narrated by a young women who uses creaky voice. [Published on 04-17-2015]
Hatred of the word "moist": voluntary or involuntary?
Play videoSince the How I Met Your Mother character, Lily's hatred of the word “moist” was revealed in 2007, I have encountered lots of people who also hate the word. Whether this was a voluntary choice is unclear. I do know of a few people who began hating it after seeing this episode of the show. Is this purely an expression of speaker agency discussed in the speaker design model? Are they modeling their linguistic likes and dislikes after Lily or did she just bring the so-called gross word to everyone’s attention? What is it about the word that makes people find it so distasteful? Dane Cook seems to think the dislike is related to gender. Check out this video of his stand-up bit about women hating the word: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nRMmrY_Qh4
Vocal Fry on This American Life: Freedom Fries
A segment on This American Life that profiles the complaints the show has received about the use of "vocal fry," or creaky voice, by its female commentators. It profiles the dominant stereotype that it is used by young women only, and that it indexes a set of negative attributes. Penny Eckert is interviewed on her recent research on NPR and creak that finds an age-based difference in perceptions of creak. Ira concludes, "people who don't like to listen to young women on the radio have moved on to vocal fry." [Published on 01-23-2015]
How using 'they' as a singular pronoun can change the world
This is an article that discusses the importance of using singular 'they' and addresses issues related to its "correctness". [Published on 02-03-2015]
Why we are saying "uh" less and 'um' more
Changes in our filled pauses [Published on 02-07-2015]
57% of Languages do not have gendered pronouns
A map from the website "Sociological Images" showing the distribution of gendered and gender-neutral pronouns in the world's languages. 57% of languages profiled here make no gender distinctions. [Published on 10-11-2014]
Sweden's new gender neutral pronoun is a step towards equality, and catching on quick
A blog post on the recent spread of the gender neutral pronoun "hen" in Sweden. [Published on 10-08-2014]
Speech markers reveal details about your age, sex, and lifestyle, scientists claim
A daily mail article discussing research that finds gender and age-based differences in the use of fillers [Published on 10-06-2014]
Vocal Fry may hurt women's job propsects
An Atlantic article summarizing the study of Anderson et al that concluded that use of creaky voice makes women less hireable. [Published on 05-29-2014]
Vocal Fry doesn't harm your career prospects
A critique of the Anderson et al. study that found that females using creaky voice were judged less desirable. The author points out that the matched guise approach involved speakers who were taught to produce more creaky guises, so that the creak is an imitation. Further, the creaky utterances were longer and had lower pitch, raising questions about what listeners were reacting to. [Published on 06-06-2014]
Study: Women with creaky voices deemed less hireable
The Washington Post reports a research study that found that women who used creaky voice were judged by listeners to be less competent, less educated, less trustworthy, less attractive, and less hireable. The research team concludes that speakers should "should undertake conscious effort to avoid vocal fry in labor market settings." [Published on 06-02-2014]
The Seatbelt Crew - Hijra
Play videoA 2014 Public service announcement about the importance of wearing seat belts in India, where Hijras get the message out and are described as revered, sacred trans people who bestow blessings.
What Is a “Preferred Gender Pronoun,” and Is It Always Obnoxious?
A discussion of the practice of asking individuals in advance to select their preferred gender pronoun.
Girl vs. Woman
A 2013 Harvard Crimson article about the terms "girl" and "woman" as terms of reference.
2010 Color Survey Results
Results from a survey asking participants to label colors in 2010, with an analysis of gender differentiation in the data.
Citation: Lakoff, Robin. 1972. Language and Women's Place. Journal of Sociolinguistics.
NPR: Kreayshawn breaks in, but whose party is she crashing?
A 2011 profile of white female hip hop artist Kreayshawn, leader of a "white girl mob" of Oakland hip hop artists, which highlights the criticisms of her related to her race and gender.
Women don't talk more than men, so why do people believe that they do?
A Slate article debunking the myth that women talk more than men, and speculating about the myth's staying power.
High School asks female student to pledge to stop cursing
A Catholic High School in New Jersey asks female but not male students to pledge to stop cursing.
Using Unbiased language
This site offers suggestions for avoiding gender bias and sexism in the English language.
Dancing Hijras
Play videoA YouTube video of hijras, known in India as the "third sex" dancing in Punjab
Transgender voice lesson
Play videoAn example of the many voice tutorials on YouTube made by transgendered individuals for other transgendered individuals interested in sounding more like their gender role - more like men or women.
(Enlarge image)Dude: Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
Play videoDude: Bolling Cartoon
(Enlarge image)Gender and the performance of Pitch
(Enlarge image)A graph of men and women's fundamental frequencies in apparent time. The expected difference in mean pitch given differences in the size of the laranx is greater in practice, suggesting that pitch differences are exaggerated during the performance of gender.
Marriage Rights for Intersex Individuals in Texas
A judge in Texas in 2010 refused to rule on whether trans or intersex individuals had the right to marry (and so be considered to be in "opposite-sex" relationships).
Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas Hearings
Play videoA clip from the 1991 confirmation hearing of Supreme Court Justic Clarence Thomas, which shows Senator Arlen Specter questioning Anita Hill.
I use this with the reading: Mendoza-Denton, Norma. 1995. "Pregnant Pauses: Silence and Authority in the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas Hearings."
Genderbread Person, V.1
(Enlarge image)Verson 1 of the Genderbreak person outling the four continua that make up one's gendered self: gender identity, sexual orientation, biological sex, and gender presentation. From www.itspronouncedmetrosexual.com