Abstract:
Mary Ritchie Key in ‘Male/Female Language’ (1975) states that “history is the study of the powerful and women have had no power” (p.123). This essay considers the role that language plays in gendered power relations. Language echoes one’s community values through the social ideologies communicated in its terms, its construction, its limits and its possibilities. Gendered biases in the English language are central to my inquiry. This text talks to the metaphors that propose gender as not something biologically rooted but as something we do (West & Zimmerman, 1987) and something we perform (Butler, 1990). I am interested in language which demonstrably attributes power. Therefore, I will focus on the construction of words and the way we currently use them. I look at Judith Butler’s strategy of subverting gender. I also draw from sociolinguists and contemporary theorists such as Robin Lakoff, Michaela Koch, Moya Lloyd, Rebecca Solnit and Sara Ahmed to consider whether or not we can continue to afford to use biased language in everyday life. If language is learned – have women been taught to be a woman through the nuances of gendered language? If language is a primary device used in interactions – can language be a vital tool of oppression? Finally, I will discuss some contemporary art practices that inform my creative process. Artists such as Claire Fontaine, Jenny Holzer and Gina Matchitt are relevant for their methods and methodologies they employ - all of which use language as a primary form. I consider these art practices and their relation to disrupting common assumptions. Can art that subverts current value systems be used to disrupt the significance of gender? Does art that uses forms of language, craft, art activism and human strike have this potential?