Monday night’s linguistic class centered around the linguistic differences between men and women. Did you know that it’s been proven that men dominate conversation? Did you know that while men and women’s conversational style are equally effective, it changes when men and women mix. Women’s style becomes subdued to a man’s.

What I find most alarming, though, is that I’m in a class full of 20-somethings and they keep saying that the feminist perspective was wrong and that it did nothing to better the language. That saying “chairman” versus “chairperson” is preferable.

While one word doesn’t necessarily bother me, I am alarmed that young women of today don’t seem to realize that really good practices came out of the feminist movement. The feminist movement FORCED the status quo to change and become more encompassing. It forced language to be more gender and sex neutral to allow more people the ability to take part in conversation, in the workplace, and in life in general. Women were no longer delegated to “kitchen” talk and could fully take part in any discourse.

It’s ok to not consider yourself a feminist. It’s not ok to ignore the great strides that women before you took to make it possible for you to even be in school pursuing a degree that used to be a male-only field or to make it possible for you to take part in this type of discourse. Ridiculing the past only makes these young women appear mean and ignorant.

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Then I have to remember that they are young. 22 is young. The majority of them haven’t lived life. I chuckle when I hear them say that the playing field is even in the workplace. How do they know? Have they been out there, working in the workplace? Have they put in their time, year after year, to know that the playing field is even? Because I can tell them from personal experience that it’s not. Not by a long shot.

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Tonight we discuss linguistic differences between ethnicities and races. This should be fun.

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Ok…enough seriousness…this is totally silly and really not on track for me but fun.


You’re Invisible Man! by Ralph Ellison

Most of your life, people have either ignored you or told you that you were wrong. You’ve been duped, mistreated, misled, and neglected. Maybe it was because of your race, or some other uniqueness that people were quick to condemn, but now youjust want to crawl into a hole and disappear. After all, nobody knows your name. But you just might speak for everyone.
Take the Book Quiz at the Blue Pyramid.

You’re Ireland!
Mystical and rain-soaked, you remain mysterious to many people, and this makes you intriguing. You also like a good night at the pub, though many are just as worried that you will blow up the pub as drink your beverage of choice. You’re good with words, remarkably lucky, and know and enjoy at least fifteen ways of eating a potato. You really don’t like snakes.
Take the Country Quiz at the Blue Pyramid